Frederick Etchells
| Frederick Etchells | |
|---|---|
| Born |
14 September 1886 Newcastle upon Tyne, England |
| Died | 16 August 1973 (aged 87) Folkestone, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Royal College of Art |
| Known for | Painting, Architecture, Book Publishing, Church Restorations |
| Movement | Vorticism, Omega Workshops, Group X |
Frederick Etchells (14 September 1886 - 1973) was an English artist and architect.
Etchells was born in Newcastle upon Tyne. His early education was at the London School of Kensington, now known as The Royal College of Art where he studied on the Architectural course under Professor Arthur Beresford Pite(1861-1934) and two years under Professor Lethaby, which brought him into contact with the Bloomsbury Group.
He was a contributor to the Omega Workshops, but was one of those breaking away with Wyndham Lewis; this breakaway began the Rebel Art Centre, with the Rebel Art Movement, somewhat akin to the Dadaists in Paris. The Rebel Art Movement transformed into the Vorticists several of his illustrations appeared in the issues of the literary magazine BLAST of which there were only two issues. There was a Manifesto, which not all of the artists involved signed up to; Etchells himself excluded his name from the manifesto. However William Roberts later painted Etchells holding the copy of BLAST in his work "The Vorticists at the Restaurant de la Tour Eiffel, Spring 1915". Roberts wrote to Etchells wanting to confront Lewis about his prominence in the authorship of the magazine, to which Etchells declined since he no longer wanted anything to do with it. He, unlike many of the others from the Vorticists, remained acquainted with Roger Fry.
In his architectural practice, Etchells produced some modernist buildings, the most well known of is his designs was for 232–4 High Holborn, London (1929–30) for the advertising firm WS Crawford Ltd., a commission he had obtained through his friend Ashley Havinden (1903–73) who was the company’s art director from 1929. This was the first fully modernist office building in central London. Its clean façade was matched by a modern interior, complete with built-in furniture and stainless steel. Etchells main responsibility was the façade.
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