Provenance

Laurie-Rae Chamberlain (1950-2017), was a colour Xerox artist and graphic designer best known for his work on music album, magazine, and book covers. He was active in the British art and fashion world during the mid-1970s and 1980s before falling out of public life. An early adopter of the colour Xerox art form, he exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in the late 1970s and the Biennial of European Graphic Arts. He even served as an informal ambassador for colour xerography, doing a live demonstration for the BBC in 1982 and publishing a book called Zen and the Art of Colour Xerography the same year.

More recently, his work was included in a retrospective exhibition on xerography at Firstsite in 2013, as well as part of a group show on 20th-century British performance, music and graphic design in 2019. Prints by Chamberlain are in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, the British Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. His artwork also appears on the covers of a 1979 eponymous album by the Flying Lizards and a 1981 album by This Heat, and in the video of the song ‘Zerox’, by Adam and the Ants, stills of which appeared on the sleeve for the single ‘Cartrouble’. Chamberlain also filmed early gigs and rehearsals by the Ants in 1977–1978 on silent 8mm film which were later edited into a short film which circulated among Ant's fans from the 1980s onwards under the title ‘Jackson Pollack’.

In addition to his Xerox art work, Chamberlain competed in the Alternative Miss World contest in 1975 and served as a gossip columnist and fashion editor of the International Times.

Entitled 'A Tribute to Birgit Skiöld', the artists featured in this portfolio were taught by or worked with Skiöld. Birgit Skiöld (1923-1982) was a Swedish printmaker and modernist, heralded as one of the most important printmakers of the 20th century. She exhibited at the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour in London as well as holding one man exhibitions throughout England and abroad. From 1958 until her untimely death in May 1982, Birgit ran the highly successful Print Workshop in the basement of 28 Charlotte Street, London. The workshop was the first open-access professional print workshop in England and soon became a destination of choice for such celebrated artists as David Hockney, Eduardo Paolozzi, Joe Tilson and Victor Pasmore. In tribute to her enormous contribution to printmaking, the V&A held an exhibition of Birgit’s work in 2011. 

After the artist's death, a commemorative project was produced, entitled ‘A Tribute to Birgit Skiöld’ to raise funds for the Birgit Skiöld Memorial Trust. 118 artists from various countries contributed free of charge an edition of 25 prints in the 30 x 30 cm format, to create a portfolio of three volumes. Following the preface, tributes were provided by Graham Reynolds, Nils Stenquist, John McEwen, James Kirkup and Pat Gilmour, as well as poems by Edward Lucie-Smith and James Kirkup. The British Museum holds one of the editions.