LONDON.- Falmouth Art Gallery has been given an exceptional collection of 99 prints created by the master printmaker, Hugh Stoneman which includes a sultry, behind-the-scenes image of Marilyn Monroe taken from her last completed feature film. The gift has been made by The Art Fund, the UK’s leading independent art charity, which bought the collection for £30,000, and means the Gallery now boasts one of the most important print collections outside of London,.

Hugh Stoneman (1947-2005) was an internationally preeminent master printer during the second half of the 20th century. The Art Fund Hugh Stoneman Archive celebrates a career spanning three decades in which Stoneman worked closely with a diverse range of painters, photographers, sculptors and ceramicists including George Shaw, Linda McCartney and Eve Arnold, and with prominent Cornish artists such as Sandra Blow, Sir Terry Frost and Barbara Hepworth.

One of the star prints in the Archive is an alluring and unusual photogravure of Marilyn Monroe playing pool. The image was taken by renowned photographer Eve Arnold on the set of The Misfits, the classic American film written by Arthur Miller and starring screen legends Clarke Gable and Montgomery Clift. Arnold, who often worked with Monroe , documented the troubled making of the movie which saw Monroe divorce Miller and delve further into alcohol and drugs. Tragically, it was to be Monroe ’s last completed feature film.

Andrew Macdonald, Deputy Director of The Art Fund, said: “The intimate and seductive image of Marilyn Monroe playing pool on the set of her final film The Misfits is just one of the many highlights in this eclectic collection of prints. Hugh Stoneman made an immense contribution to contemporary printmaking, reflected in this impressive archive that we are thrilled to give to Falmouth Art Gallery .”

Stoneman was born in Islington, London in 1947 and graduated as a painter from Camberwell College of Art, London in the late 1960s. He discovered his talent for printmaking after studying etching with W.Hayter in Paris at Atelier 17 in 1970. Stoneman had several studios in London from the early 1970s before he located to Cornwall . After twelve years of commuting he finally built a print studio in Madron, Cornwall in 1995, where he worked for the rest of his life. Stoneman’s skills however were sought out by major contemporary artists from all over the world including those from Africa, Chile, Hungary, India, Iraq, Mexico, Russia, and of course throughout the UK.

Falmouth Art Gallery will be holding a major exhibition of the Archive, titled The Masters’ Master – The Art Fund Hugh Stoneman Archive, opening on 14 November 2009 at Falmouth Art Gallery . Prior to that time, a selection of prints will be on display, and anyone wishing to access the entire Archive is welcome to do so at the Gallery’s premises.