Claude Flight (1881-1955)

Claude Flight was to become the most famous protagonist of the linocut in this country. His vital, dynamic prints were early recognised as masterpieces in a neglected medium. The origins of his importance in the development of this art form in England date from his association with the highly influential Scottish artist Iain Macnab, with whom Flight had come into contact by early 1921 or before. Both artists shared a loose bond through Heatherley's School of Art where Claude Flight had trained between 1912 and 1914, and where Macnab was later to become co-principal in 1919.

Impressed by Claude Flight's linocut publications, which first appeared during 1925, and by Flight's regular participation in the Seven and Five Society since 1922, Iain Macnab invited the artist to join the small hand-picked staff at his newly formed Grosvenor School of Modern Art. Claude Flight began teaching at the Grosvenor School in 1926 and it was from here that Flight established and popularised the technique of linocut as a major and dramatic new art form, shaping the talents of artists such as Sybil Andrews, Cyril Power, and Guy Malet. These artists and the group which formed around them have yet to be surpassed in their creative usage of the medium.