The Art Edit is delighted to present paintings, drawings and prints by William McCance and his circle. The collection includes a portrait of McCance’s first wife Agnes Miller Parker (1895–1980), cards printed and inscribed by artist friends, and designs produced during McCance’s tenure as Controller of the Gregynog Press. All works come from the Artist’s Estate and have never before appeared on the market.
Like any modernist worth his salt, William McCance sought to document twentieth century industrial life. His subject is often domestic, but is realised using a vorticist schematisation which promotes underlying geometric volumes. Thus, organic forms assume an almost mechanised quality: a human figure is transformed into a strange automaton; a grove of trees is delineated as if it were a cluster of factory pipes.
McCance moved to London in 1920 with Agnes Miller Parker, where they were amongst the earliest Scots to adopt a Wyndham Lewis-inspired vorticism. Their mutual inclination towards line and pattern lent itself well to the graphic arts; Miller Parker was a talented wood engraver and illustrator, while McCance worked across painting, printmaking, design, sculpture, writing and typography.
In 1930 McCance became second Controller of the Gregynog Press, a significant private press in Montgomeryshire, Wales. The Press flourished under his stewardship, and he oversaw the production of several exquisite limited edition publications.
