BACKGROUND

The Howard Hodgkin print works exhibition will be the first exhibition developed by BAG (Barbican Art Galleries), specifically to tour. It is conceived as a large-scale touring exhibition, spanning the artist's entire career in this medium. Hodgkin has produced about 130 editions of striking and beautifully crafted prints. They range in size from the very small to huge triptychs. This long-awaited exhibition will finally provide the opportunity for a full appraisal of the works and assist audiences to understand the extent of his achievement. In his maturity as a painter, Hodgkin has proved himself as an outstanding colourist, with his pictures in oil on wood panel and his signature painted frames an integral part of the picture surface. He constantly re-invents his personal language of marks, often developing compositions from spatial and formal observations, using form and colour to communicate pure aesthetic emotion. The Howard Hodgkin print-works exhibition will be the first exhibition of the artist's work, to trace the development of his outstanding output. As a major exhibition by one of Britain's leading contemporary artists, it perfectly complements existing BAG tours, enhancing both the quality and range of exhibitions we currently have available to venues. It's importance of the exhibition to the Barbican and to future tour venues is considerable, in providing a rare opportunity to collaborate with a British artist of such international standing, through a show that in many ways charts the course of this remarkably successful career. Touring the exhibition to venues around the UK also opens up an opportunity for a more diverse kind of curation. It is a significant component of the programme to allow younger, local curators the chance to work in partnership on the curation of the show. It is a rare possibility to work with one of Britain's most successful artists and to develop a solo exhibition. Developing the exhibition in this particular way gives each show a local and unique identity. The exhibition as such will approach a high level of variation, which is often the case with tours, but it will also draw the outlines of the direction of the show. Curating the exhibition within the regional areas will meet the local communities in a significant way instead of a seeing it as a London show based outside the city.