The William Heath Robinson Trust has been established to conserve and exhibit the collection of the works of William Heath Robinson made by his daughter, Joan Brinsmead. The Trust also seeks to add to the collection, to foster study of the artist and his work and to make the full scope of his achievements more widely known.
West House, Pinner
The first phase of the planned Heath Robinson museum at West House in Pinner
has now opened to the public. West House is a Georgian house at the top of Pinner
Memorial Park which was bought by the people of Pinner as a war memorial, but
which by the 1980s had become derelict. Heath Robinson lived in Pinner and The
William Heath Robinson Trust was seeking a permanent home for its collection. The
Pinner Association, with the WHRT, formed a new trust to raise funds to renovate the house and to extend it to provide a purpose built gallery. Phase one of the project
was to restore the existing house and this has now been done. It provides a café,
shop and exhibition space where examples from the WHRT collection are
displayed. Initially, the
gallery will be open from 1pm to 5pm on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons with extended hours during special exhibitions.
Meanwhile, The West House and Heath Robinson Museum Trust will continue, with
renewed vigour, to raise funds for the second phase, the building of a new, purpose-built
gallery.
Current Exhibition, Until 29 February 2012
A New Exhibition of Works by W H Robinson
This exciting new exhibition shows the two contrasting sides of Robinson's art, as an illustrator and as a humorous artist.
Jonathan Cape started his publishing house in 1921 and one of his first projects was an illustrated set of the complete works of Shakespeare. His chosen artist was William Heath Robinson, made over 650 black and white drawings and a number of coloured illustrations. Although the project was abandoned, the illustrations survive and a selection of these drawings, on loan from Random House, are included in the exhibition.
In a completely different vein are the drawings that Heath Robinson made for How to Live in a Flat in 1936. As well as providing an opportunity for many of his contraptions, the book gave him an opportunity to satirise Modernism in architecture and design.
Throughout the book he is able to combine digs at the architecture with his favourite subject of people taking themselves too seriously.
A selection of drawings from the book is included in the show.
The exhibition is open on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons (1pm to 5pm) at West House, 50 West End Lane, Pinner, HA5 1AE.
Click Here to read the full press release.
Permissions for the images reproduced on this site have been kindly granted by Pollinger Limited,
on behalf of the Estate of Mrs J.C. Robinson.
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