Arnrid Johnston

Last updated

Arnrid Banniza Johnston (1895 - 8 July 1972) was a Swedish sculptor and illustrator, who spent the majority of her life and career in Britain.

Contents

Biography

Obelisk, Walden House, Pimlico Obelisk, Walden House, Pimlico.JPG
Obelisk, Walden House, Pimlico

Johnston was born at Uddevalla in Sweden, to a Swedish mother, Lily Ann, and an English father, Arthur Sannox Johnston, and was educated at a school in London at Blackheath. [1] Remaining in London, between 1913 and 1920, she studied at the Slade School of Fine Art where she won several prizes including, on two occasions, the Feodora Gleichen memorial prize for sculpture and also a two-year Slade scholarship. [2] [3] At the Slade she studied sculpture under James Havard Thomas. [3]

Johnston worked as a sculptor and carver in stone, wood and marble to produce animal and figure groups, reliefs and garden pieces. [2] Her early sculptures included a large, three-sided carved obelisk in Portland stone of children and animals for the courtyard of Walton House in the Pimlico area of London, which took her four years to complete. [1] [4] In 2018, Historic England recognised the significance of the piece with a Grade II listing. [5] Other animal themed reliefs by Johnston included Cats on a Chimney Cowl, Squirrels and Resting Horses. [1] She also painted and produced posters, notably several promoting travel to London Zoo for London Transport in 1930. [6]

During the 1930s and 1940s, Johnston wrote and illustrated up to twenty books for children, often on animal subjects and also illustrated works by other authors, notably The Little Black Calf by Kathleen Foyle. [1] [3] Johnston exhibited works at the Goupil Gallery, the Chenil Gallery, at the Whitechapel Art Gallery and with both the London Group and the New English Art Club. [2] [3] Examples of her garden ornaments were included in the Garden Sculpture Exhibition held at Selfridges in Oxford Street in 1930. [1] An exhibition of her work was held at Sally Hunter & Patrick Seale Fine Art in 1985. [3] Her tapestry The Orchestra was included in that exhibition and is now held by Morley College while the London Transport Museum holds examples of her poster designs. [3] [7]

Books written and/ or illustrated

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kathleen Scott</span> British sculptor (1878–1947)

Edith Agnes Kathleen Young, Baroness Kennet, FRBS was a British sculptor. Trained in London and Paris, Scott was a prolific sculptor, notably of portrait heads and busts and also of several larger public monuments. These included a number of war memorials plus statues of her first husband, the Antarctic explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott. Although the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes her as "the most significant and prolific British women sculptor before Barbara Hepworth", her traditional style of sculpture and her hostility to the abstract work of, for example Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, has led to a lack of recognition for her artistic achievements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elisabeth Frink</span> English sculptor and printmaker

Dame Elisabeth Jean Frink was an English sculptor and printmaker. Her Times obituary noted the three essential themes in her work as "the nature of Man; the 'horseness' of horses; and the divine in human form".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clara Birnberg</span> British artist

Clara Birnberg was a British artist, illustrator, portraitist and sculptor. After her marriage to the artist Stephen Weinstein, they changed their surname to Winsten and both became Quaker humanists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ana Maria Pacheco</span>

Ana Maria Pacheco is a Brazilian sculptor, painter, and printmaker. Her work is influenced by her Brazilian heritage and often focuses on supernatural themes, incorporating them into unfolding narratives within her work. Pacheco's work has been displayed in galleries internationally and has won multiple awards throughout her career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Ford</span> British sculptor (born 1961)

Laura Ford in Cardiff, Wales is a British sculptor.

Deborah Brown was a Northern Irish sculptor. She is well known in Ireland for her pioneering exploration of the medium of fibre glass in the 1960s and established herself as one of the country's leading sculptors, achieving extensive international acclaim.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Adshead</span> English painter, muralist, illustrator, designer (1904–1995)

Mary Adshead was an English painter, muralist, illustrator and designer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Turnbull (artist)</span> Scottish artist

William Turnbull was a Scottish artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phyllida Barlow</span> British artist (1944–2023)

Dame Phyllida Barlow was a British visual artist. She studied at Chelsea College of Art (1960–1963) and the Slade School of Art (1963–1966). She joined the staff of the Slade in the late 1960s and taught there for more than forty years. She retired from academia in 2009 and in turn became an emerita professor of fine art. She had an important influence on younger generations of artists; at the Slade her students included Rachel Whiteread and Ángela de la Cruz. In 2017 she represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale.

Althea Kathleen Wynne, also known by her married names of Dresman and Barrington Brown, was an English sculptor and art teacher, and a Fellow of the Royal British Society of Sculptors. She specialized in creating large figurative work for gardens and public open spaces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlotte Verity</span> British painter

Charlotte Verity, Lady Le Brun is a painter living and working in London, UK. A monograph on her work, Charlotte Verity was published by Ridinghouse, in November 2016.

Kim Lim (1936–1997) was a Singaporean-British sculptor and printmaker of Chinese descent. She is most recognized for her abstract wooden and stone-carved sculptures that explore the relationship between art and nature, and works on paper that developed alongside her sculptural practice. Lim's attention to the minute details of curve, line and surface made her an exponent of minimalism.

Veronica Maudlyn Ryan is a Montserrat-born British sculptor. She moved to London with her parents when she was an infant and now lives between New York and Bristol. In December 2022, Ryan won the Turner Prize for her 'really poetic' work.

Kathleen Guthrie was a British artist who exhibited with the London Group and at the Royal Academy and also had several solo exhibitions. During a long career Guthrie painted in oils and watercolours, produced silkscreens and murals and wrote and illustrated children's books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phyllis Bray</span> English painter

Phyllis Bray was a British artist and illustrator known for involvement in the East London Group of artists, for the murals she produced and for illustrating children's books. During her career she also exhibited at the Royal Academy and at several leading London galleries.

Elsie Marian Henderson, later Baroness de Coudenhove, was a British painter and sculptor notable for her animal paintings.

Karin Margareta Jonzen, née Löwenadler, was a British figure sculptor whose works, in bronze, terracotta and stone, were commissioned by a number of public bodies in Britain and abroad.

Ursula Ulalia Edgcumbe was a British sculptor and painter. As a sculptor she worked in stone, wood and bronze while, after switching to painting, many of her works depicted birds and groups of figures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Spencer Watson</span> British sculptor

Mary Spencer Watson was an English sculptor. Watson was born in London and spent most of her life in Dorset and was inspired by watching masons carving Purbeck stone, close to her family home there. Her works can be seen at Cambridge University and Wells Cathedrals, among other sites.

Kathleen Ophir Theodora Parbury was a British artist and sculptor, known for the large sculptures she created for British churches and internationally. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1966.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 University of Glasgow History of Art / HATII (2011). "Miss Arnrid Banniza Johnston". Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain & Ireland 1851–1951. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 Sara Gray (2019). British Women Artists. A Biographical Dictionary of 1000 Women Artists in the British Decorative Arts. Dark River. ISBN   978-1-911121-63-3.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 David Buckman (2006). Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 1, A to L. Art Dictionaries Ltd. ISBN   0-953260-95-X.
  4. "Photograph, Johnston, Arnrid Banniza (sculptor)". Victoria & Albert Museum. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  5. 1 2 Historic England. "Arnrid Johnston Obelisk (1459927)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 14 November 2021.
  6. David Bownes (2018). Poster Girls. London Transport Museum. ISBN   978-1-871829-28-0.
  7. "Arnrid Banniza Johnston, 1895–1972". London Transport Museum. Retrieved 14 November 2021.