Nora S. Unwin: A Retrospective
Monadnock Center for History and Culture, Peterborough, NH • monadnockcenter.org • Through September 28, 2024
The works of twentieth-century engraver and illustrator Nora S. Unwin (1907–1982) can be found at a roster of famous institutions—the British Museum, The Met, and the Smithsonian, to name a few. A wonderful and fitting surprise, however, is to discover that the world’s largest collection of her work resides at the Monadnock Center for History and Culture in Peterborough, NH, the town Unwin left England to visit in 1946 and quickly made her home.
The Center’s current retrospective features eighty of Unwin’s works in two rooms. The first room, arranged chronologically, includes already sophisticated drawings by a twelve-year old Unwin and enchanting early woodblock prints of animals and nature. Several of Unwin’s books are on display—she illustrated over 100 books and authored twelve—as are her engraving tools, and selected later works. The second room is arranged by major themes, including nature, spirituality, cats, and experiments in abstraction.
Most of the pieces are black-and-white woodblock prints, which Unwin typically hand-impressed, a practice demanding great precision to ensure print quality and consistency. Technically exceptional and richly detailed, her pieces are also emotionally evocative. Michelle Stahl, the Center’s executive director, says that, from a young age, the artist was able to convey emotional content with any subject, remarkably doing so “with basically the white of the paper and black ink.” In a print like Jack in the Pulpits, Unwin’s rendering of local flora flexes with the compressed energy of New England’s brief yet exuberant growth season.
Unwin came to Peterborough in 1946 at the invitation of her friend and frequent collaborator, American writer Elizabeth Yates. Artistically invigorated by the New England landscape, she decided to stay. She would live, teach, and create in New England (primarily in Peterborough) until her death in 1982. She left the contents of her studio (over 1,500 pieces including prints, engravings, books, sketchbooks, and collagraphs) to the Sharon Arts Center. Following a series of institutional mergers, the collection was donated by New England College to the Monadnock Center in 2022, fulfilling Unwin’s wish for her work to remain in her adopted hometown.
— Alix Woodford