Blazingly colourful prints by the late Howard Hodgkin, some combining layers of different printing techniques and hand-colouring to achieve the richness and complexity he sought, will go on brief display this summer, before being auctioned to help create a new museum collection of his work.
The prints on show at Sotheby’s in London from 8 June, before a sale four days later, will include some recent rediscoveries which had been in storage for decades. All are the artist’s proofs of illustrations, stage, ballet and costume designs, and commissions including his swimming poster for the London 2012 Olympics.
Hodgkin died last year, aged 84, leaving works in museums and galleries all over the world, and hundreds more in his studio and stores. His partner, Antony Peattie, said the sale was to allow him to put together a collection of Hodgkin’s graphic work to be given to a museum, and to create a definitive catalogue raisonné of his prints.
“Howard’s work enjoys a strong emotional link with the public. This is another step in honouring his legacy,” Peattie said.
Peattie has sold hundreds of the works of art and antiques Hodgkin collected in his home in Bloomsbury, London, saying it was too sad to have the house filled with them after the artist’s death.
Hodgkin spent half a century experimenting with colour, scale and technique – his prints range from postcard size to six metres long – to achieve the effects he wanted. His work included designs for the Royal Ballet, and for books by his friends Julian Barnes and Susan Sontag.
Frances Christie, the head of postwar British art at Sotheby’s, said: “Howard Hodgkin was an erudite artist whose deep engagement with every aspect of the arts meant that he steered a unique course. Although best known for his paintings, Hodgkin’s works on paper reveal the sheer scope of his sources and approaches – from stage designs and book covers to a prodigious body of prints created in collaboration with master printmakers over 50 years.”
