Escalator

Ben Johnson (1946 - )

Screenprint

1975

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© Crown copyright, UK Government Art Collection

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Escalator
  • About the work
    Location
    Country: UK
    City: London
    Place: Government Art Collection
    Ben Johnson is known for his paintings ofarchitecture spaces and cityscapes. He hasoften depicted architectural interiors, which hereproduces in a realistic manner, with greatattention to detail. In many cases they offer hisviewer the sense of a first-hand view of aparticular architectural space, almost in thesame way as a photograph might. This ishowever a beguiling proposition, as Johnsonbrings to each of the spaces his owninterpretation of how they are presented. Hehas also repeatedly painted a singlearchitectural space to show how the samespace might have appeared over differentperiods of time. In this print he uses thescreenprinting process to overlay colours. Thisconveys a sense of looking through the glassbarrier that forms the artist’s viewpoint for thisparticular architectural scene.
  • About the artist
    Ben Johnson was born in Llandudno, Wales. He studied at the Royal College of Art, going straight on to his first solo exhibition in New York in 1969 soon after graduating. His work on the Liverpool Cityscape captures 170 hectares of the city, reproduced in acrylic on canvas as a vastly detailed bird’s eye view of the metropolis and is on view in the Museum of Liverpool. Johnson has exhibited his work in museums and galleries internationally and undertaken commissions for a variety of institutions from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) to the British Museum and for HSBC and JP Morgan to IBM and Hong Kong Telecommunications. His work is included in museum collections including the V&A and the British Museum in London; the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
  • Explore
    Places
    Subjects
    plant, window, escalator, commercial interior
    Materials & Techniques
    screenprint
  • Details
    Artist
    Ben Johnson (1946 - )
    Title
    Escalator
    Edition
    30/125
    Date
    1975
    Medium
    Screenprint
    Acquisition
    Commissioned from the artist via Editions Alecto, 1975
    Inscription
    below image: 30/125 R.J. / Ben Johnson '75
    Provenance
    Commissioned by PSA 9/1975.
    GAC number
    12077/30