Events to mark the life of a remarkable artist and pioneering inventor who lived and worked in Accrington more than a century ago have taken place in the town.
Lancashire-based arts and heritage charity, Mirador, have been running printmaking workshops with schools and adults as part of the Copy That project, supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, to commemorate the centenary of Karel Klic’s death.
Klic, originally from Bohemia which is now the Czech Republic, is little known in Lancashire even though he played a significant part in Accrington’s industrial life in the late 19th Century.
Klic invented photogravure printing, a process for reproducing high quality fine art images which meant that most households could afford to have art on their walls at home. The invention also revolutionised the printing of pictures in the press, in books and on postcards.
Klic was a classically trained artist himself fascinated in capturing likenesses and among his many oil paintings of prominent Lancashire people is a portrait of Accrington’s mayor, Thomas Whittaker.
After moving from Bohemia, Klic lived in Accrington, possibly seeing the potential of using his technique in the local calico printing industry. He later moved to Lancaster where he partnered with the Storey Brothers, renowned for producing oil cloth. Together, they established the Rembrandt Intaglio Printing Company
Mirador is raising awareness of Klic’s remarkable life and work by running a year-long programme of exciting activities and interesting events involving people of all ages and abilities.
Printmaker Alan Birch from Waterfoot has led workshops at Haworth Art Gallery with pupils from St John’s Stonefold CE Primary School in Accrington and St John’s CE Primary School in Baxenden and a drop-in session at Accrington Library for people of all ages.
During the workshops, Alan demonstrated how to create and prepare an etching plate for printing before showing how to ink and print the plate through a press.
Alan selected images of local Accrington architecture as a theme, and all participants created their own images.
In September, a similar workshop will be held for pupils at Woodnook Primary School in Accrington.
The Copy That project culminates with an exhibition at Lancaster’s Storey Gallery in November, exactly a century since Klic’s death, and transfers to Blackburn in the new year.
