Introducing Ken (Kenneth) Rush

One of the great things about specialising (particularly in motoring art) is that every day is a 'school day' and we are constantly discovering new artists and pictures that send us on a voyage of discovery. Our latest discovery is Kenneth (Ken) Rush! I'm guessing that most (UK) readers, of a certain age, of this blog will have a sub-conscious knowledge of Ken's work, because Ken was the artist for the Brooke Bond tea cards album "History of the Motor Car" an album that the author has fond memories of! As a youngster I was well aware of this album and owned a proudly completed copy (My word we must have drunk some tea in our household!) but, I was completely unaware of the artist and sort of took for granted that they 'just existed'. Now, with age and appreciation I am slightly in awe that each of these cards were painted and produced by an artist - furthermore - not just any artist, but Ken Rush.

So, imagine what a thrill it is to now own some of these original artworks here at The Mabileau! I no longer take the artist for granted and it is wonderful to be able to find out a little more about Ken Rush - an artist who's work I'd always known, but knew nothing about the creator!

Ken Rush was born in 1931 and alledgedly he could draw before he could walk! He entered many poster competitions during WW2 and won 1st prize in all of them, in the process won a scholarship to art school- notably he won the General Motors 'Car of the Future' challenge at the age of 13. It is unsurprising that on leaving school he joined Vauxhall Motors as a car designer, during National Service with the RAF he had the task of creating recruitment posters, and later became a freelance specialist car illustrator and was responsible for many of the images and brochures that were found at many motor show stands. 

His talents were soon picked up across the Atlantic and he was recruited by the American magaizine Automobile Quarterly (AQ) and became one of their 'house artists' - when we look at the list of artists who have held this title, this alone qualifies Ken as 'one of the greats' - surprising then, that Ken doesn't automatically spring to mind when we think of motoring artists of the later 20th C. perhaps this points to an inherent modesty.

Towards the end of the 1960's Ken was engaged by 'Profile Publications' and became one of the house artists to illustrate the featured profiles. Profile Publications produced small 'brochures' that catalogued the 'facts and figures' of various cars- these brochures were then compiled into at least 2 reference books 'Classic car profiles '61-'96' and 'Classic Cars in Profile Vol. 2.' both publications heavily featured Ken's artwork.

As a 'spin-off' from these works Ken was also very involved in many American marque specific publications including the definitive guides to the Corvette and the Mustang and these books are considered to be the 'catalogue raisonee' of their respective 'lifecycles' - some of the illustrations for these books were produced as very attractive posters and are collectable and desirable to fans of the cars, we hold some of the original artworks at the gallery and they really do bear closer inspection, the hand produced detail is incredible.

There is an interesting Pathe Pictorial video of Ken Rush at work, showing his attention to detail and his airbrush technique for colouring images and it is well worth a 5 minute coffee break with 'google' tracking it down.

We have a variety of Ken Rush pieces at the gallery and would be delighted to welcome visitors to hopefully engage and educate a little more about this great British motoring artist, who is sadly in danger of being forgotten.