Hepworth Wakefield revives 1940s scheme to create artists prints for primary schools 6 Feb 2018

In the late 1940s Brenda Rawnsley drew together a group of artists to create School Prints: sets of images of contemporary art to be displayed in primary schools, to give many young people a first taste of new work. These included work by Matisse, Henry Moore and Picasso. Now Hepworth Wakefield has revived the idea, and has invited six artists (Martin Creed, Jeremy Deller, Anthea Hamilton, Helen Marten, Haroon Mirza and Rose Wylie) to produce work responding to the original 1940s brief. Deller’s image shows an intellectual octopus reading a book called ‘The Problem With Humans’. He comments: “I’ve always felt that contemporary art is much better suited to children than it is to adults. My print is almost like an illustration from a book. It’s meant to make little kids smile.” The sets of prints will be given away free to schools in Wakefield, and will be made available cheaply to schools elsewhere. The project is accompanied by an exhibition displaying the new work, alongside examples from the 1940s.