Art - John Hoyland

Four Square Fine Arts have just put up an interesting exhibition of prints, including the work of two well-known painters who aren’t usually associated with the medium, Craigie Aitchison and John Hoyland, both RAs. Both artists have been trained by the London-based group Advanced Graphics to adapt their painterly skills to print-making, quite a different process, and one which allows their work to become more accessible to the public. We’re particularly taken with Hoyland’s work, which is why we’ve used an example as this week’s cover image (more of which later). “You don’t get the texture he achieves with his painting, but he’s been able to convey the vigour and tone of nature and the boldness of his colours very well in these prints”, says Sonia Crivello, who runs the gallery space. “He’s one of the most important post-war British abstract artists”, she continues. “He started out with rather formal compositions, but he has managed to break his own mould and move on. One of his main strengths is his astute use of complementary colours”. Hoyland recently enjoyed a retrospective exhibition in the Tate St Ives.

Craigie Aitchison’s prints are in vibrant colours, too, though they are more austere in their figurative, and largely Biblical, subject matter. The third artist on show, Trevor Jones, is a trained print-maker whose restrained style acts as a welcome foil to the others’ work. If you go to the gallery, you will no doubt notice that our cover image, which we have used in landscape format, is actually intended to be seen in portrait. Apologies to Mr Hoyland. AL