Artwork
David Watkins Jewellery and Sculpture.
David Watkins Jewellery and Sculpture. is a poster by Bob Cramp. It dates from 1986 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
About this work
This poster shows a grassy field with a big, empty sculpture in the foreground. The sculpture looks like sharp metal shapes stacked in a pile. Behind it, there’s a dark sky with trees and a building in the distance.
The poster is for an art show in 1986. It mixes jewelry and sculpture by David Watkins.
Look up Cramp, Bob next, he made this poster.
Overview
This 1986 poster, created by Bob Cramp using colour offset lithography, promoted an exhibition of David Watkins’s jewellery and sculpture at Leeds City Art Gallery. The show ran from 31 January to 6 April that year. Cramp’s design centers on a photograph of Watkins’s 1985 sculpture Kingdom, presented against a natural landscape to emphasize its form and presence within an open environment.
Subject & Meaning
The poster highlights Kingdom, a stacked arrangement of sharp, angular metal forms that evoke both structure and fragmentation.
The poster highlights Kingdom, a stacked arrangement of sharp, angular metal forms that evoke both structure and fragmentation. Positioned in a grassy field under a darkening sky, the sculpture appears isolated yet grounded, suggesting a tension between human-made objects and natural settings. The absence of figures reinforces a contemplative mood, inviting reflection on scale, material, and absence.
Technique & Style
Bob Cramp employed a photographic approach, capturing Kingdom in natural light to preserve its metallic textures and geometric contrasts. The poster’s layout is minimalist, with the sculpture dominating the foreground and the sky and distant trees framing it subtly. The colour offset lithography process allowed for rich tonal depth, enhancing the interplay between the sculpture’s cold surfaces and the organic backdrop.
History & Provenance
The poster was produced in 1986 to accompany the exhibition at Leeds City Art Gallery, which featured Watkins’s work across two disciplines: wearable jewellery and freestanding sculpture. Bob Cramp, known for his photographic documentation of contemporary art, was commissioned to create the visual identity. The poster remains a primary record of the exhibition and Watkins’s practice during this period.
Context
In the mid-1980s, British art institutions increasingly showcased craft-based practices alongside fine art. Watkins’s inclusion in a gallery setting reflected a broader shift toward recognizing jewellery and sculpture as equally valid artistic expressions. The poster’s placement of Kingdom in a landscape aligns with contemporary interests in site-specificity and the dialogue between object and environment.
Legacy
The poster endures as a document of a specific moment in British craft and sculpture history. It captures Watkins’s interest in industrial materials reconfigured into poetic forms, and Cramp’s role in visually articulating such work. Though not widely reproduced, it remains a reference point for understanding how exhibitions of craft were promoted and perceived in public institutions during the 1980s.
Artist & collection
Artist
Bob Cramp made a single 1986 poster for David Watkins Jewellery and Sculpture, printed in bold flat colors against a stark white ground.
