Ivon Hitchens, Under the Greenwood

Once or twice in every generation, there is an artist who stands out as being utterly fused with their own landscape, their work deeply rooted in the place they inhabit. Ivon Hitchens is one such artist. Jonathan Clark Fine Art represents the artist's estate and holds the largest inventory of Hitchens' work. Between 5th and 27th May 2016, the gallery will show approximately 28 paintings - dating from the late 1920s through to the early 1970s - in the exhibition, Under the Greenwood.

There is a dual aspect to his paintings: they are neither entirely abstract nor completely figurative. The more exciting of his works hold the two qualities in equilibrium. His exploratory approach is essential when approaching the same subject time and time again; he famously transfers the same approach to the shape of his canvases - the double and triple square format, which suggests panorama and experiments with peripheral vision. 'I like my long shapes' he wrote, 'so that I can 'move”, so that one half or part reacts against, whilst furthering the purpose of the other.' Hitchens aimed to reconcile the vertical eye-movement with sweeping horizontal rhythms. His outputs were planned sequences of rhythmic moves bought to life through strategic dramatic brushstrokes, colour, shape and gradient of line that drags the eye around the canvas; in this regard, Hitchens had a level of discipline that seems almost unique when set against his artistic contemporaries.

Above all else, Hitchens' art represents his lifelong romance with nature: one of the most consistently dynamic muses of modern British art. He represented Britain at the 1956 Venice Biennale and had major retrospectives at, Tate Gallery London (1963), the Royal Academy of Arts (1979) and the Serpentine Gallery (1989), and his work is represented in many museum collections throughout the world - including Tate Gallery (London), the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Ashmolean Museum, the Scottish National Gallery, Manchester City Art Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts (Montreal), Nasjonalgalleriet (Oslo), Göteborgs Konstmuseum (Gothenburg) and Musée national d'Art Moderne (Paris). 

Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 10am-6:30pm; Saturday by appointment (or 10am-2pm during exhibitions)