Screenprint on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
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Collection
Schemes for Summer Borders
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/ivor-abrahams-622" aria-label="More by Ivor Abrahams" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Ivor Abrahams</a>
Rose Trees
Presented by Evelyne Abrahams, the artist's wife 1986
architecture
artifice
emotions, concepts and ideas
flowerbed
formal qualities
garden structures
photographic
plants and flowers
rockery
rose
townscapes / man-made features
universal concepts
wall
paper print screenprint
Rose Trees
image: 372 × 540 mm
Presented by Evelyne Abrahams, the artist's wife 1986
<p><b>Group of ninety-eight screenprints, lithographs and etchings</b>, various sizes [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/abrahams-garden-emblems-i-p11099" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P11099</span></a>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/abrahams-nereids-ii-p11196" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P11196</span></a>; incomplete]
<br/>
<br/>Presented by Evelyne Abrahams, the artist's wife 1986</p>
<p>This group of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>prints</span></a> was bequeathed to Evelyne Abrahams by the artist's parents, Harry and Rachel Abrahams, on the understanding that she would present it to the Tate Gallery on their behalf. It represents the greater part of the artist's printmaking to date. Other works by Abrahams in the collection are a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculpture</span></a> entitled ‘Lady in a Niche’, 1973 (<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/abrahams-lady-in-niche-t03369" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T03369</span></a>), a work on <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a> entitled ‘Winter Sundial’, 1975 (<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/abrahams-winter-sundial-t02330" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T02330</span></a>), and a small number of prints: ‘The Garden Suite’, 1970 (<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/abrahams-garden-suite-i-p04001" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P04001</span></a>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/abrahams-garden-suite-v-p04005" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P04005</span></a>), ‘Sundial I (Summer)’, 1975 (<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/abrahams-sundial-i-summer-p07384" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07384</span></a>) and ‘Untitled’ [from the artist's book <i>Oxford Gardens: A Sketchbook</i>], 1977 (<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/abrahams-untitled-from-the-book-oxford-gardens-a-sketchbook-by-ivor-abrahams-p08150" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P08150</span></a>).</p>
<p>Abrahams is primarily a sculptor, and many of his prints relate to particular sculptures. In the period 1967–79 Abrahams focused on garden imagery, exploring the relationship between art, artifice and nature. Many of the images used in early prints were based on small, relatively poor quality <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/photograph" title="Glossary definition for 'Photograph'"><span>photographs</span></a> of gardens reproduced in gardening magazines, such as the weekly <i>Amateur Gardening</i> and <i>Popular Gardening</i>, or, less frequently, better quality illustrations found in the series of volumes on gardens published by Country Life in the 1920s. This use of second-hand source material gives much of his printed output a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/conceptual-art" title="Glossary definition for 'Conceptual art'"><span>conceptual</span></a> quality, and links his work to <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/pop-art" title="Glossary definition for 'Pop art'"><span>Pop art</span></a>. Abrahams has presented a large amount of source material relating to his printmaking of this period, including magazine clippings, photographs and sketches and acetate stencils, to the Tate Gallery Archive (TGA 8315).</p>
<p>The critical and commercial success of ‘The Garden Suite’ (<span>P04001</span>-P040054), published in 1970, helped establish Abrahams' name internationally, and in the following decade he went on to produce a significant body of prints, making approximately one print a month. The dealer Bernard Jacobson published many of his portfolios, and the Mayor Gallery organised a series of touring shows of prints and sculptures. In this period Abrahams was based in London, working at a studio in Leonard Street, EC2, from 1969 to 1982, and at the A &amp; A Foundry in Bow from 1982 to 1992, with a second studio at Butler's Wharf from 1974 to 1979.</p>
<p>In 1979 Abrahams abandoned the garden theme for which he had become well known and focused instead on water-based imagery, using bathers and nymphs which were inspired in part by the landscape, myths and folk customs associated with the South of France. Abrahams and his French wife bought a home in Pézenas, in the Languedoc, in 1973, where he used the cellar as a studio. In 1988 they bought a house in the small village, Castelnau de Guers, in the same region, and have lived there on a full-time basis since 1992.</p>
<p>Unless otherwise stated, all quotations by the artist in the following entries are taken from a taped interview with the compiler held on 18 August 1994. The entries have been approved by the artist.</p>
<p>[from]<b> Schemes for Summer Borders</b> 1972 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/abrahams-sunflowers-p11112" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P11112</span></a>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/abrahams-rose-trees-p11115" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P11115</span></a>]
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<br/>Four screenprints with varnish and flock fibre, various sizes, on Schoellers Hammer card 1020 × 730 (40 1/4 × 28 3/4), from a suite of five; printed by Chris Betambeau at Advanced Graphics and published by Hans Hoeppner, Graphische Editionen, Kunstverlag, Hamburg in an edition of 75 plus 10 sets of artist's proofs
<br/>Each inscribed ‘Ivor Abrahams 72.’ below image b.r. and ‘Artist's Proof’ below image b.l. and stamped with the cardmaker's stamp ‘SHUTZMARLE SCHOELLERSHAMMER’ in circular device with ‘HAMMER | 4 g DICK’ below, t.r.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Ivor Abrahams: Environments, Skulpturen, Zeichnungen, Komplette Graphiken</i>, exh. cat., Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne 1973, pp.92–3, figs.24–7</p>
<p>‘Schemes for Summer Borders’ depicts different varieties of summer-flowering plants in brick-built or stone-built raised beds of different shapes. The fifth print of the series, missing from this set, is ‘Delphiniums’ (repr. Cologne exh. cat., 1973, p.92, fig.23). Abrahams was commissioned to make this suite by the German publisher Hans Hoeppner.</p>
<p>The images are based upon plastic versions of these flowers and beds taken from a toy model kit. Abrahams had first made use of such kits in making ‘Garden Model’, 1968 (repr. ibid., p.24), which he subsequently used as a setting for an animated film entitled ‘By Leafy Ways’, 1971. The flowers and beds were photographed by a professional photographer employed by the printing firm Advanced Graphics (see entry on ‘Privacy Plots’, <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/abrahams-privacy-plots-i-brick-wall-p11101" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P11101</span></a>-<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/abrahams-privacy-plots-v-hedge-and-street-p11105" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P11105</span></a>). Using an overhead projector, the images were enlarged to create a monumental effect, and various stencils based on the images were created. In conversation Abrahams said the large format of the works and the large amount of blank space surrounding the images related to old-fashioned botanical illustrations.</p>
<p>The bricks or stones in the beds, printed in shades of brown, red and yellow, are varnished. In contrast to the surrounding black mortar, which is left mat, the varnished bricks appear to advance towards the viewer. The contrasting varnished, mat and flocked surfaces, as well as the use of invented and photographic images, emphasise the contrived artificiality of the scenes.</p>
<p>The title ‘Schemes for Summer Borders’ is redolent of the gardening magazines and books that Abrahams frequently used as sources for his works. In a text published in the Cologne catalogue Abrahams said that he drew on ‘recipes and instruction manuals’ and ‘prescriptions for the nouveau bourgeoisie’, saying that he was interested in ‘the rules behind the rules’ (‘Ivor Abrahams in Conversation with R.J. Rees’, p.18). The phrase ‘schemes for summer borders’, with all its aesthetic and social associations, can be seen as indicative of such a prescriptive approach to nature. In this connection it is relevant that the plants represented in the suite have particular social and historical connotations. Hollyhocks and sunflowers, although traditionally associated with Victorian cottage gardens, are also popular in modern suburban gardens, as are blue hydrangeas and modern standard roses. The rustic-looking bricks or stones used in the raised beds are again a recurrent feature of suburban gardens, and evoke the efforts of the do-it-yourself gardener.</p>
<p>[from]<b> Schemes for Summer Borders</b> 1972 [<span>P11112</span>-<span>P11115</span>]
<br/>
<br/>Four screenprints with varnish and flock fibre, various sizes, on Schoellers Hammer card 1020 × 730 (40 1/4 × 28 3/4), from a suite of five; printed by Chris Betambeau at Advanced Graphics and published by Hans Hoeppner, Graphische Editionen, Kunstverlag, Hamburg in an edition of 75 plus 10 sets of artist's proofs
<br/>Each inscribed ‘Ivor Abrahams 72.’ below image b.r. and ‘Artist's Proof’ below image b.l. and stamped with the cardmaker's stamp ‘SHUTZMARLE SCHOELLERSHAMMER’ in circular device with ‘HAMMER | 4 g DICK’ below, t.r.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Ivor Abrahams: Environments, Skulpturen, Zeichnungen, Komplette Graphiken</i>, exh. cat., Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne 1973, pp.92–3, figs.24–7</p>
<p>‘Schemes for Summer Borders’ depicts different varieties of summer-flowering plants in brick-built or stone-built raised beds of different shapes. The fifth print of the series, missing from this set, is ‘Delphiniums’ (repr. Cologne exh. cat., 1973, p.92, fig.23). Abrahams was commissioned to make this suite by the German publisher Hans Hoeppner.</p>
<p>The images are based upon plastic versions of these flowers and beds taken from a toy model kit. Abrahams had first made use of such kits in making ‘Garden Model’, 1968 (repr. ibid., p.24), which he subsequently used as a setting for an animated film entitled ‘By Leafy Ways’, 1971. The flowers and beds were photographed by a professional photographer employed by the printing firm Advanced Graphics (see entry on ‘Privacy Plots’, <span>P11101</span>-<span>P11105</span>). Using an overhead projector, the images were enlarged to create a monumental effect, and various stencils based on the images were created. In conversation Abrahams said the large format of the works and the large amount of blank space surrounding the images related to old-fashioned botanical illustrations.</p>
<p>The bricks or stones in the beds, printed in shades of brown, red and yellow, are varnished. In contrast to the surrounding black mortar, which is left mat, the varnished bricks appear to advance towards the viewer. The contrasting varnished, mat and flocked surfaces, as well as the use of invented and photographic images, emphasise the contrived artificiality of the scenes.</p>
<p>The title ‘Schemes for Summer Borders’ is redolent of the gardening magazines and books that Abrahams frequently used as sources for his works. In a text published in the Cologne catalogue Abrahams said that he drew on ‘recipes and instruction manuals’ and ‘prescriptions for the nouveau bourgeoisie’, saying that he was interested in ‘the rules behind the rules’ (‘Ivor Abrahams in Conversation with R.J. Rees’, p.18). The phrase ‘schemes for summer borders’, with all its aesthetic and social associations, can be seen as indicative of such a prescriptive approach to nature. In this connection it is relevant that the plants represented in the suite have particular social and historical connotations. Hollyhocks and sunflowers, although traditionally associated with Victorian cottage gardens, are also popular in modern suburban gardens, as are blue hydrangeas and modern standard roses. The rustic-looking bricks or stones used in the raised beds are again a recurrent feature of suburban gardens, and evoke the efforts of the do-it-yourself gardener.</p>
<p><b> Rose Trees</b> 1972
<br/>
<br/>Screenprint with flock fibre and varnish 372 × 540 (14 5/8 × 21 1/4) on Schoellers Hammer card 1020 × 730 (40 1/4 × 28 3/4)
<br/><i>Repr:</i> Cologne exh. cat., 1973, p.92, fig.24 (unspecified impression)</p>
<p>The rose trees have flowers flocked in white with pink overprinting, and green flocked trunks and leaves, the latter overprinted with a curvilinear pattern. The plants at the front of the bed are also flocked and overprinted in green, while the photographic image of three boulders between the trees has been overprinted with a buff colour. The Cologne catalogue describes the print as having had six printings, four flockings and six printings on the flock.</p>
<p>In conversation the artist said that the image had distant echoes of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century embroidery patterns, and confirmed that he was aware of such material at the time.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><i>Tate Gallery: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions</i> <i>1986-88</i>, London 1996
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-13T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
architecture artifice emotions, concepts and ideas flowerbed formal qualities garden structures photographic plants and flowers rockery rose townscapes / man-made features universal concepts wall