Illustrator Brian Sanders offers a rare glimpse into Stanley Kubrick’s creative process

A ramshackle old bank in Clerkenwell has been transformed by architect-turned-gallery director Didier Madoc-Jones into a new exhibition space.
Two years ago, the handsome, half-abandoned shell (complete with stray cat in the basement) was crying out for conversion. Didier enlisted his brother, the RIBA award-winning architect Pascal Madoc-Jones, to pull the space apart, adding partition walls to provide picture hanging room. ‘He also made the building’s past visible by exposing the metal security structures around the old bank vaults and the old Victorian paint on the ceilings,’ Didier explains. ‘It all adds texture.’
These layers of history left on the gallery walls are a fitting tribute to what now hangs on them: postwar magazine illustrations. Lever Gallery is dedicated to preserving this oft-ignored, papered-over visual heritage. ‘Before photography dominated, colour magazine illustration had a brief heyday in the UK, lasting from the late 1950s to the mid-70s,’ Didier explains. 'That time is gone and will not come again.’
Of course, there are still prominent magazine illustrators working today, but ‘their work does not define today’s popular culture in the way that the lifestyle illustrators of that time had the opportunity to do.’ In the fifties, illustration was the most affordable, frequently used visual asset magazines worked with.
‘2001 Moon Pit’, by Brian Sanders.
Colour printing presses were popping up across the country, and with them, new opportunities for artists, who would sketch an illustration, sending it via post for reproduction. They'd be lucky if they got the original back. ‘Ironically, because lifestyle illustration was mass-produced it wasn’t considered to be of great value,’ says Didier. ‘Much of the original work is lost, in someone's attic, or destroyed.’
Lever Gallery is constantly on the hunt for good, original work. A series by revered lifestyle illustrator Brian Sanders, currently on show with the gallery, is one such hidden gem. The collection has never before been exhibited – having been tucked away for almost half a century in Stanley Kubrick’s house. Sanders was invited by the cult director onto the set of his legendary film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1969) to document the comings and goings of cast, crew (and spacecraft). The resulting series offers a unique glimpse into the director’s notoriously closed-book creative process.
These works are displayed alongside Sanders' more traditional lifestyle illustrations (seen in publications like Woman’s Mirror, The Sunday Times Magazine and Nova) as well as recent poster illustrations that the 80-year-old Sanders created for TV show Mad Men in 2011.
Didier acknowledges that the gallery premise is niche. ‘In the US, postwar illustrators have a loyal and sophisticated following. Iconic works command significant sums, but here, no one can name a Rockwell or a Bernie Fuchs.’ But the UK audience is small but committed, and Didier is optimisitic. ‘There’s a nostalgia for print media illustration. It has something distinct to say about who we were and what we aspired to be.’
If this is a new dawn for postwar illustration, it’s a misty one. But it’s a pleasure to see these wistfully charming original drawings finally displayed for what they are – works of art.
Kubrick looking down over the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Brian Sanders, 1969.
Kubrick setting up shot, on 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Brian Sanders.
Warren Beatty, by Brian Sanders, for Nova.
The Kubrick images are displayed alongside Sanders' more traditional lifestyle illustrations, which were featured in publications like The Sunday Times Magazine and Women’s Mirror
Hide and Seek, by Brian Sanders.
Astronaut Costumes, by Brian Sanders, from 2001:A Space Odyssey, 1969
Installation view of ‘Brian Sanders: Selected Works’ at Lever Gallery
INFORMATION
2001: A Space Odyssey will be screened open-air in the Barbican’s Sculpture Court on 25 August. ‘Brian Sanders: Selected Works’ is on view until 29 July. For more information, visit the Lever Gallery website
ADDRESS
Lever Gallery
153-157 Goswell Road
London EC1V 7HD
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Elly Parsons is the Digital Editor of Wallpaper*, where she oversees Wallpaper.com and its social platforms. She has been with the brand since 2015 in various roles, spending time as digital writer – specialising in art, technology and contemporary culture – and as deputy digital editor. She was shortlisted for a PPA Award in 2017, has written extensively for many publications, and has contributed to three books. She is a guest lecturer in digital journalism at Goldsmiths University, London, where she also holds a masters degree in creative writing. Now, her main areas of expertise include content strategy, audience engagement, and social media.
-
‘Uprooted’: Jorge Penadés and Seetal Solanki rethink the value of discarded olive wood
At Madrid Design Festival, an exhibition by Jorge Penadés and Seetal Solanki explores the overlooked potential of centenary olive wood, salvaged from Andalucía’s intensive olive oil industry
By Ali Morris Published
-
‘A call to action for more authentic expressions of working-class life’: a London show reframes working-class Britain
London exhibition ‘Lives Less Ordinary’, at Two Temple Place, challenges age-old stereotypes
By Teshome Douglas-Campbell Published
-
Wallpaper* checks in at Hoshino Resorts KAI Akiu: a soothing onsen hotel
In Japan’s bucolic northeast, Hoshino Resorts KAI Akiu breathes new life into a sleepy hot spring village without betraying its ancient roots
By Eric Millman Published
-
‘A call to action for more authentic expressions of working-class life’: a London show reframes working-class Britain
London exhibition ‘Lives Less Ordinary’, at Two Temple Place, challenges age-old stereotypes
By Teshome Douglas-Campbell Published
-
‘Dr Tetris’ on the biggest ever iteration of the puzzle in London
Tetris comes to 360-degree, 23,000 sq ft, 16k LED screens in London; Craig McLean speaks to Henk Rogers, the man who’s kept the game alive
By Craig McLean Published
-
Never-before-seen Barbara Hepworth works go on show in landmark exhibition
In ‘Barbara Hepworth: Strings’, various Hepworth sculptures will be exhibited in public for the first time, at Piano Nobile, London
By Anna Solomon Published
-
Mysticism, witchery and the occult: inside the world of tarot
London exhibition ‘Tarot: Origins & Afterlives’ at the Warburg Institute considers seven centuries of tarot
By Emily Steer Published
-
American artist and activist Gregg Bordowitz considers survival and experience in London
Gregg Bordowitz's new show, 'There: A Feeling' at Camden Art Centre, spans video, installation, performance, poetry, and prints
By Sam Moore Published
-
Alice Neel’s portraits celebrating the queer world are exhibited in London
‘At Home: Alice Neel in the Queer World’, curated by Hilton Als, opens at Victoria Miro, London
By Hannah Silver Published
-
‘You have to face death to feel alive’: Dark fairytales come to life in London exhibition
Daniel Malarkey, the curator of ‘Last Night I Dreamt of Manderley’ at London’s Alison Jacques gallery, celebrates the fantastical
By Phin Jennings Published
-
Steve McQueen presents a portrait of protest in Britain
Turner Contemporary’s groundbreaking exhibition Resistance reframes the history of protest, reminding us of photography’s political potential
By Millen Brown-Ewens Published