Eileen Mayo

England / Australia / Aotearoa New Zealand, b.1906, d.1994

Turkish Bath

  • 1930
  • Linocut
  • Gift of Rex Nan Kivell, 1953
  • 355 x 230mm
  • 94/240

Two prints from early in Eileen Mayo’s career show the strength of her natural ability. Eileen was nineteen and studying at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London, when she made the wood engraving Skaters. She made Turkish Bath a few years later in response to an invitation to put work in the Second Exhibition of British Lino-Cuts at the Redfern Gallery, London. Her invitation came from Claude Flight, the linocut’s principal champion, who reportedly instructed her on the technique over the telephone. She had met Flight, a teacher at the Grosvenor School of Art, while working there in 1929 as a life-class model.

(Perilous: Unheard Stories from the Collection, 6 August 2022- )

Exhibition History

earlier labels about this work
  • [In Modern Times, 18 December 2015 – 11 September 2016] (https://christchurchartgallery.org.nz/exhibitions/in-modern-times)

    Eileen Mayo was invited to exhibit in the Second Exhibition of British Lino-Cuts at the Redfern Gallery in London in 1930 without having yet learned the technique. A talented young designer, illustrator and printmaker who had studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Central School of Arts and Crafts, she received the invitation from Claude Flight, the linocut’s principal champion. Mayo met Flight, who taught in London at the Grosvenor School of Art, while working there in 1929 as a life-class model; she was reportedly instructed by him on linocut technique over the telephone.

    Shown in the 1930 exhibition, Turkish Bath in its flattened space and use of decorative pattern displays the influence of the emerging art deco style, as promoted by Flight alongside futurism and cubism. Mayo moved to Australia in 1952 and ten years later to New Zealand, where she established a reputation as a significant printmaker and teacher.

    (In Modern Times, 18 December 2015 – 11 September 2016)