Francis Carr BA, FRSA

Born Geza Dezso Spitzer in Hungary, Francis Carr moved to England at the age of 19 in 1938. An enthusiastic artist, upon arrival in England he visited a number of art schools including the Chelsea School of Art - where he was interviewed by the late Henry Moore, and the Central School of Arts and Crafts, where he was seen by Noel Rooke. Drawn to the atmosphere of the building and the school's craft-driven tradition, Carr enrolled for the autumn 1938 term.

He studied at the Central School between 1938 and 1942, when he joined the British Army and fought on the continent, changing his name from G D Spitzer to Francis Carr to avoid persecution if captured by enemy forces. He returned to the Central in 1946 and remained there until 1948, when he received the School's Diploma in its inaugural year. He studied book illustration under Noel Rooke and John Farleigh - Rooke's successor as Head of the School of Book Production, and lettering under M C Oliver, a former student of Edward Johnston. After the Second World War he continued his book illustration studies and also studied poster design under Hal Missingham, commercial art under Cecil Collins, lithography under Edwin La Dell and W P Robins, and life drawing under Bernard Meninsky, William Roberts and James Grant. Carr's contemporaries at the Central included Susan Einzig and Gerald Marks.

In 1948 he left the Central School and pursued a career in the arts, successfully introducing screen-printing as a creative graphic process in the UK during the early 1950s. He wrote a book on the subject, 'A Guide To Screen Process Printing', published in London by Vista Books in 1961 as part of their 'Facts of Print Series'. He was a design consultant to the GLC Housing Division and carried out numerous commissions for housing estates and later focused on "the relationship between landscape, ecology, and the arts", producing a number of acclaimed landscape art commissions. His work has been exhibited and published both in the UK and abroad and he continued to work out of his London studio until his death in 2013.

In 2007 and in 2009 Francis Carr donated a collection of both student work and professional commissions to the Museum and Contemporary Collection at Central Saint Martins. The collection is available for research.
Author: Steven Bateman