A snapshot of 1979
In this year at Warwick:
- 83,000 people visited the Arts Centre: a 33% increase on the previous year.
John Piper became well known as a painter of architecture, romanticised to suggest its place in history. This interest perhaps stemmed from a commission in 1940 from the Recording Britain scheme that employed 97 artists to depict 1,549 heritage sites that might not survive the war or subsequent developments.
He accepted numerous commissions and this print is one of a series of eight entitled Victorian Dream Palaces. Ettington Park, near Stratford-on-Avon, was the home of the Shirley family. The present house was rebuilt on foundations of Saxon origin in 1862 to designs by John Shirley.
And in the world:
- Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s first female Prime Minister.
- Sony introduced the Walkman.
John Piper | Ettington Park | 1979 | Screenprint | 602 x 783