Collection: Rita Letendre

Rita Letendre (1928-2021) is best known for her vibratingly bold paintings and public interventions but also produced an incredible body of print work, including several prints made at Open Studio in the 1970s. Letendre worked with one of Open Studio's founders, Richard Sewell, on eight screenprints produced between 1972 and 1979, which employ a similarly intense use of colour, line and saturation as her paintings. 

When asked about working with Letendre, Sewell observed that “Rita knew exactly what she wanted to print - as to scale, to colours - and she was cautiously open to some evolved changes with textures or blends. Her sense of colour was close to absolute and she was a great believer in “registration” - her work celebrated where one shape or tone or colour exactly touched its neighbouring shape or tone or colour. Letendre’s consistency across her work, from prints to paintings and to murals, was strongly unusual and unique.”