Allin Braund (1915-2004)
"He formalises his shapes, introduces purely symbolic devices, throws perspectives to the winds and imposes personal colour schemes, but all his pictures strike one as translations into paint, as direct and authentic visual experience ... The work is of manifest sincerity."
Eric Newton, Art Historian and Guardian Art Critic
About Allin Braund
At the Venice Biennale of 1954, Allin Braund exhibited three prints in a show which also contained the works of Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud, Eduardo Paolozzi, Graham Sutherland, Ben Nicholson and Henry Moore. Prior to this he had made his first sale - to Dr Jacob Bronowski, for his private collection. He went on to see his work exhibited around the world and purchased by some of its most prestigious institutions.
A Senior Lecturer at Hornsey College of Art in London, where he influenced Ken Kiff and Allen Jones, Braund gained a reputation as a print maker. His cubist space lithographs were heralded as the best of their age. At its Mayfair showing in the St George's Gallery, The Observer critic described his "Surf Against Rocks" as being, "...a masterpiece of modern lithography".
Braund's talents were not confined to painting and lithography. He was a silversmith, stained glass artist and sculptor. Some of his large concrete reliefs in London, at Paddington Green Police Station and the River Police boathouse on the Thames, still stand.