Curators Talk For The Lyons Teashops Lithographs at Towner

Join the exhibition curator for a walk and talk through The Lyons Teashops Lithographs: Art In A Time Of Austerity on Thursday 12 September at 12.30pm.

Visitors will be able to hear the fascinating story of how 29 of the 40 lithographs were discovered in a corner of the old Towner Art Gallery’s collection store, and through careful conservation restored to their former glory. The talk will then go on to show how the team acquired the rest of the set to make it complete.

Guests will also learn about the history of the lithograph project and the artists involved, including John Lake who was Curator of the Towner Art Gallery at the time of his commission in 1947.

The talk is free to visitors with an entry ticket to The Lyons Teashop Lithographs exhibition. Entry to the exhibition is £5.50 for adults and £4 for concessions, members free.

The talk takes place at Towner on 12 September at 12.30pm, for more information go to www.townereastbourne.org.uk

The Lyons Teashop Lithographs: Art in a time of Austerity

Post-war British artists including Edward Bawden, John Piper, David Gentleman, John Minton, William Scott, Duncan Grant, John Nash and L .S. Lowry form part of The Lyons Teashops Lithographs: Art in a Time of Austerity. The exhibition celebrates Towner’s collection of the complete set of 40 lithographs commissioned by catering giant J. Lyons & Co. to combat the wartime decline in the interiors of their famous Lyons Teashops, compounded by a post-war lack of decorating materials.

Through the company’s enterprising approach to arts patronage and interior decoration, the cream of modern British art was for the first time accessible to a wider public in 200 Lyons Teashops nationwide.

Towner’s exhibition presents all three series of lithographs – commissioned between 1946-1955 - together with a selection of the original paintings and working drawings.  Whilst some of the artists were able to produce their own lithographs, others created watercolour, oil, gouache, pen and ink, or collaged works that were then turned into the final lithograph. The works were produced on a large enough scale to conceal the faded teashop decors. War artists, Royal College of Art alumni, and well-known and emerging practitioners were chosen to produce tasteful works of art that would appeal to the typical Lyons Teashop The Lyons Teashops Lithographs are a key legacy of these pioneering times, the last Teashop having closed its doors in 1981.

In addition, the Towner café has been transformed to give a special Lyons – inspired experience of “tea and slice of art” where the café will have its very own ‘Nippie’!