Professor Chris Orr MBE RA
A Case of Zoomania Involving Leonora Carrington, watercolour and pencil on paper, 153⁄4 × 233⁄4in (40 × 60cm)
Best known as a printmaker, Chris Orr cites drawing as the key to his art. ‘Drawing is the basis of everything to the artist; it is like practising scales to a musician. Ignore drawing at your peril.’ A narrative artist and a natural complicator, his images present a web of curiosities composed of a mixture of metaphors, references, allusions, jokes and descriptions. Michael Palin describes him as ‘creating order out of chaos’ but he says, ‘Chris can equally, like the quiet satirist he is, create chaos out of order.’