Drawing on Style: Irwin 'Bud' Crosthwait

A retrospective of the work of Canadian artist Irwin 'Bud' Crosthwait. Leading fashion illustrator & powerful moderist painter. A unique selling exhibition of work not seen for 50 years

GRAY M.C.A leading specialists in Fashion Illustration and Modern Art are holding a selling exhibition of the work of respected Canadian War Artist, Fashion Illustrator & Modern Painter Irwin 'Bud' Crosthwait (1914 – 1981) at Gallery 8, St, James's London.

With more than 60 original works from private collections around the world including: War Art, Fashion Illustration & Modern Art with prices ranging from £350 to £10,000.

Coinciding with London Fashion Week (SS16), the exhibition will highlight Crosthwait's work as one of Paris’s acclaimed Fashion Illustrators, commissioned by publications including Harpers Bazaar, Vogue, Elle, Jardin Des Modes, Herald Tribune, New York Times & Femina and designers Givenchy, Dior, Marc Vaughan, Pucci, Courrèges & Yves St Laurent.

Crosthwait's success as a leading fashion illustrator fed his real passion for painting, enabling him to purchase the tools to create his powerful and highly textured Modernist work. Revered by his post war Tachism school abstract expressionist contemporaries, including Victor Vasarely; he exhibited worldwide to great acclaim, alongside Serge Poliakoff, Hans Hartung, Robert Jacobsen and Nicholas de Stael.

As the Exhibition's Curator, Connie Gray noted: "To be able to bring this extraordinary & versatile artist back into the public eye is an honour. His name & style was synonymous with the world of haute couture for so many years. He was known as 'the tough man' of fashion yet he drew with the lightest of touches & should be now recognised as one of the masters of his trade."

Angela Landels, former Art Director at Harpers Bazaar and Fashion Illustrator, said of Crosthwait: "Bud stood out in the fashion world, like an old mariner sitting in the front seats of the fashion shows – everyone adored him. He was irresistible.