John Christie is a visual artist and broadcast film-maker. As a maker of artist's books since 1975, he has produced more than 20 limited editions for both the renowned Circle Press and his own imprint Objectif. Alongside John Berger, he co-authored the award-winning book I Send You This Cadmium Red.[1] His prints, drawings and artists’ books are in many collections worldwide including the Tate Gallery,[2] the V&A, the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, New York Public Library and the National Library of Australia.[3]
As a director/cameraman his art-related TV programmes include Another Way of Telling,[4] a BBC series on photography made in collaboration with John Berger and Jean Mohr; Salvage of Soho Photographer,[5] a C4 documentary on John Deakin; and First Hand, a series of seven films based on literary manuscripts from the British Library.[6] As a lighting cameraman he filmed Ian Breakwell's Continuous Diary (C4), 40 Years of Modern Art (Tate), Ian Breakwell's Public Face/Private Eye (C4), David Mach - From Hill to Castle (BBC2), David Nash - At the Edge of the Forest (BBC Wales), and The Other Side Ian Breakwell's installation produced by Anna Ridley and shown at the De La Warr Pavilion and Tate Britain.
John Christie is one of the four founding members of the award-winning East Anglian publisher Full Circle Editions[7] and also of the Flip Side literary and music festival held at the Aldeburgh Music complex, Snape Malting's, every autumn.
Collections
Overlappings 2 pastel on paper 2012
Selected Public and Library Collections - Artists Books, Prints, and Drawings
Britain-Tate Gallery (books/prints); Victoria and Albert Museum (b/p); Government Art Collection (drawings); British Library (books); London College of Printing (b); Central St. Martins School of Art Library (b); Chelsea School of Art Library (b); Manchester University Library (b); Wimbledon School of Art Library (b); Winchester School of Art Library (b)
2015- Blue, Blue Elefante (Uruguay) - photographs for the book by Eulalia Bosch (Barcelona)
2015- Cuatro horizontes (Four Horizons) - an account of the trip to Le Corbusier's Ronchamp chapel with John Berger, Sister Lucia Kuppens and Sister Telchilde Hinkley
2016- Lapwing and Fox: conversations between John Berger and John Christie published by OBJECTIF, UK - This book records a recent exchange of letters and small books sent between the two friends over a three-year period (2011–14). Complementing their correspondence on the subject of colour, 'I Send You This Cadmium Red' published in 2000, Lapwing and Fox covers a wide range of ideas and thoughts surrounding art and artists, drawing and painting, nature and place.
2017- Seeing Through Drawing: A Celebration of John Berger[8] published by OBJECTIF, UK - This book is both a celebration of John Berger's love of drawing and a space where his friends and family remember and pay tribute to this remarkable writer and artist who died on 2 January 2017. Edited and with an Introduction by John Christie the book has contributions from Katya Berger Andreadakis, Yves Berger, Geoff Dyer, Anne Michaels, Tom Overton, Gareth Evans, Martin Battye and Paul Gordon. The book is also in part a catalogue for the exhibition Seeing Through Drawing at Mandell's Gallery, Norwich (July/August 2017) which featured original drawings by John Berger plus work by over 30 artists to whom Berger's fiction and critical writings were important influences.
2017- Lapwing and Fox voted 'Book of the Year' at the East Anglian Book Awards.
