Monday, October 12, 2009

David Gentleman

Samples below are from a new book surveying the wide-ranging career of British illustrator David Gentleman, born in 1930 and still going strong.

National Trust posters.


Watercolors from the 1976 series Everyday Architecture in Towns, published to mark European Architectural Heritage Year.

Book illustration from Plats du Jour, 1957

Logo for the 400th anniversary of the Bodleian Library



Pair of National Trust photomontage posters from 1976 protesting a proposed motorway through the middle of Petworth Park. In this case the protest was successful and the plan was abandoned.

100,000 Drops of Blood, Gentleman's installation in Parliament Square from 2006, each drop representing someone – Iraqi, American or British – who had already died in Iraq because of the invasion. Looking at this image makes me wonder exactly how many Nobel Peace Prizes have been awarded to individuals who are actively engaged in running two large-scale wars on foreign soil where their own citizen-soldiers are dying every day.