First printed in 1972, The English Sunrise was a collaboration between British artists Brian Rice and Tony Evans. In the mid-1960s, Rice had been creating paintings featuring hard-edge geometries and contrasting colors and shapes. “I got around to dividing the canvas in various ways, including lines radiating from one corner,” he explained of his practice at the time. “As references, I took some snaps of doors, gates, windows, etc., which used this motif.” Rice showed the photos to Evans, another artist and a close friend (who passed away in 1992). Evans offered to take pictures of anything he came across that corresponded to Rice’s interest in radial forms, while Rice began acquiring relevant objects from markets and junk shops.
