Howard Hodgkin
(1932-2017)
"Away," 2000
Sugar lift-ground etching, aquatint, and hand coloring in Turner's yellow, cadmium red, and green acrylic
Edition: 35/50
Initialed, dated, and numbered in pencil in the lower edge: HH; Jack Shirreff, Andrew Smith, and Claire Wait, at 107 Workshop, Wiltshire, England, prntr. Alan Cristea Gallery, London, England, pub.
Image/Sheet: 9.5" H x 11.125" W
Other Notes: According to the artist's website, "Away" is on 100% cotton paper from Two Rivers paper mill, Watchet, Somerset, England, and handmade by Jim Patterson. In addition, "Away" was hand-colored by Jack Shirreff.

Other Notes: Four works by Howard Hodgkin in this auction provide a wonderful opportunity to consider the printmaking skills and interests of this British-born artist. The time span of the works, 1979-2002, happens to fall neatly in the middle of the 50 years during which -- in addition to his ongoing painting activities and his diverse commissions for everything from books and periodicals (see our print entitled iBooks for the Paris Reviewi), to the set designs for professional dance companies -- Hodgkin created an impressive 189 different prints.

According to Hodgkinis partner, Antony Peattie, iPrints mattered to Howard all his working life. He collected them avidlyO.He delighted in the way prints made his own work available to a wider public and revelled in its technical challenges, as collaboration with printers offered him an alternative to the lonely solitude of painting studio.i Scholar Richard Morphet wrote, iWith a deep understanding of the sophisticated techniques required to bring out the desired colours and texturesOHodgkinis printmaking methods were incredibly ambitious, spontaneous and hugely experimental. Hodgkin employed an enormous variety of printmaking techniques, from lithography, to screen-printing, to intaglio works with additional carborundum and hand-coloring. His method of layering three or even four different printmaking techniques gave new potential to the medium. The result was a painterly fusion of rich printed colour with the more immediate and luminous hand-colouring.i

Over time, the scale and technical intricacy of Hodgkinis prints tended to increase, and he occasionally switched master printers and publishers. What remained consistent through it all, however, was an ongoing interest in lush colors, broad, dynamic lines and marks, and the creation of mostly abstract compositions which he famously described as irepresentational pictures of emotional situations.i His subjects were often very personal, stemming from memories and responses to people, places, literature, and admiration for artistic predecessors or peers such as Vuillard, Degas, Matisse, Hockney, and Ellsworth Kelly. Luckily, unlike some of his contemporaries, Hodgkin tended to title his paintings and prints; his descriptive word choices often help to make his abstract images more accessible than they would otherwise be.

An impression of iThinking Aloud in the Museum of Modern Art,i is the earliest of his prints in our auction. It is one image from a series of four related soft-ground etchings recalling a visit (or visits) to that museum during different times of day, sometimes seemingly in the galleries with other visitors, and others during which the artist was alone with just the museum's artworks and the daylight from nearby windows. The 1990 color etching and aquatint with hand-coloring entitled iThe Hospital Room was Choked with Flowers, Everybody Likes Flowers, Surplus Flowers, the Room was Filling up with Flowers,i is also in this auction. It a poignant reminder of the fact that Hodgkin was a gay man who lived and worked in New York and England throughout the worst of the AIDS epidemic. Like the 1979 print just mentioned, this colorful intaglio was also made as one in a related series of images, each with an equally lengthy and telling title. In this case, Hodgkin made the five-print series after reading Susan Sontagis short story about a group of friends who learn that one of them has contracted AIDS. Her essay, "The Way We Live Now," was first published in iThe New Yorkeri magazine in November of 1986.

In early 2011, art historian Leah Ollman interviewed Howard Hodgkin for a "Los Angeles Times" article. She wrote, iHodgkin paints landscapes, portraits, and still lifes that rarely describe space and form literally but instead evoke corresponding emotional conditions. His works constitute a sensual diary of his travels and relationships, the views heis savored, the blossoms and sunsets, shifting weather and changing seasons.i Additionally, she says, iHistorians havenit always known where to situate Hodgkin beneath the chapter headings of 20th century art. At one point in the early 1990s, his work appeared in two nearly simultaneous exhibitions, one tracing postwar British abstractions and the other surveying 20th century British figurative paintingO.i Under the circumstances, Hodgkinis own words are perhaps the most helpful. iPeople want to categorize me. Itis always irritated a lot of people whoid rather I was one thing or the other. Because all painting is essentially abstract, arguing about such definitions is usually a waste of breath and a waste of ink.i

Overall good condition. The full sheet with deckled edges. The sheet is framed floating and hinged to the back mat. Not examined out of the frame.

Framed under glass: 15.25" H x 17.25" W x 2" D Condition reports are offered as a courtesy and are typically published in Moran's catalogue or can be made available upon request. The absence of a condition report does not imply that an item is free from defects or restoration, nor does a reference to particular defects imply the absence of others. Buyers are responsible for determining to their own satisfaction the true nature and condition of any lot prior to bidding. Though buyers are not legally required to inspect lots prior to purchase, failure to do so may constitute a waiver of complaint that an item was not delivered in a condition equal to the existent condition at the auction.