JOHN HOYLAND (BRITISH, 1934-2011)

Footnote

Sheffield-born John Hoyland’s visit to New York in 1964 proved to be a turning point in his career.  He was shown around by critic Clement Greenberg who exposed him to the work of Hans Hoffman and Morris Louis which encouraged him to explore the use of bold, geometric fields of colour with an emphasis on the physical surface of the medium.

'A colour is used as the key for a painting or series of paintings.  Red or green for example, can satisfy two polarities of some kind or an antithesis, like black and white...colour is used instinctively, not intellectually.  But once and instinctive voice is made, the colour tends to be played through as a long sequence.  Where to put the colour is the crucial question and decision, and always the problem... The importance of process, the way the paint is put on, is constant.  I cannot accept either wholly conceptual of purely fortuitous...the painting must come to life in its own way, as a natural process.'

-John Hoyland, quoted in the introduction of the exhibition catalogue, John Hoyland Paintings, 1960-67, London, Whitechapel Gallery, 1967, pp.13-14

Condition Report

The sheet is undulating slightly but otherwise sound; minor light staining to lower right border; ultraviolet reveals no sign of retouching; framed and under glass, unexamined out of frame.