Maggi Hambling 2020 15 OCTOBER – 21 NOVEMBER 2020

Maggi Hambling 2020

6 Albemarle Street London, W1S 4BY Telephone: +44 (0)20 7629 5161 Telefax: +44 (0)20 7629 6338 [email protected] www.marlboroughgallery.com Maggi Hambling: 2020 James Cahill

2020 – a year of contagion and the present-tense moment. Hambling is vibrant with heat. There is an echo in Resolve shades into indecision and back quarantine, moral outrage and political presented, as if from the point of view of this scene of Hambling’s Cuddling Skulls again. Nothing is more doubtful, more mobilisation. Maggi Hambling’s paintings the canvas itself, as a faint grey silhouette, (1995), in which skulls in an open subject to change, the picture seems to bear the imprints of the times in which hemmed in by two rushes of brilliant blue grave were reimagined as two clinging suggest, than certainty itself – an apt they are made, translating the crises of paint. She recedes – almost disappears characters, although in Brompton Cemetery summation of the present time. recent months into statements of thought – amid the vibrancy and fluidity of the the skulls have multiplied into a throng; and feeling. Bearing witness is – and medium. “I’ve always said that however sex and death keep close quarters. Much of Hambling’s work exudes a always has been, for Hambling – a matter long you work on a painting, you’ve got sense of intense focus, in spite of its of looking inwards, of measuring her own to bring it together into one moment,” Both Brompton Cemetery and Covid Spring seeming flux and openness. Through responses as much as documenting what she has remarked of this work. “I’ve been condense their subjects into accruals of intuitive, accumulating marks, she she sees. Her paintings of 2020 and the getting closer and closer to the process of hard, rapid, gestural marks. Within these homes in on the subject or object of two years prior are not works of social making. The viewer is there in the act of turbulent formations of paint, images are importance, even when that subject is realism, far less expressions of dogma. painting, as a participant.” intimated but never confirmed, and so indecision itself, or nothing more than an Their evocation of animals, laughing faces condensation is also paradoxically a means instinct – an undefined feeling. In Dawn or looser, more distilled images (more Around the same time, Hambling painted of deepening the mood and expanding the Chorus (2020), birdsong sounds across abstract, for all that she hates the word) Covid Spring (2020), a picture whose title resonance of the work. The same process is the clear air of the canvas. ‘Curtains’ may even appear disconnected from the alone expresses the strange conjunction discernible in Hambling’s latest portraits. of churning paint appear to close – or events of the present. But they emanate of invisible disease and blue-skied The subject is distilled into a system of conversely, to open – upon a brilliant an emotional sincerity that springs from springtime that characterised the weeks marks clinging to a white ground, with white blank. Optimism and foreboding her engagement with life in the here of lockdown – moving David Hockney an economy of style that captures the flicker in and out of view. In Incident and now – not only her own life, as she to pronounce: “Do remember they can’t fitful movements of thought and feeling (2020), made in direct response to the turns seventy-five, but our collective cancel the spring”. Flecks of floral pink – something similar to Eliot’s “decisions anti-racism protests of the summer, Hot afternoon, Brompton Cemetery, 2018-19, oil on canvas, 122 x 152.5 cm human existence. and orange, redolent of flowers, fall within and revisions which a minute will reverse”. a rushing crowd – glimpsed on a TV a swarm of dark – near-black – paintwork Self-portrait, angry (2020) employs a screen – is evoked through a torrent of government platitudes to the posturing The uncertainty and torpor of lockdown, that suggests a more toxic, suffocating scattering of dark marks – suggestive paint, transforming into a surge of feeling pictures, the laughing faces (some of them and rhetoric of Twitter: we are all, in a the ugly revenant of racial injustice, bloom. Colour fights against abjection, of flocking starlings – to evoke both – anger, exhilaration, fear, urgency. dissolving, literally, in laughter) appear human crimes against nature – these and flashing defiantly out of the blur. There her own scowling countenance and the sense, dancing bears in terms of the masks double-edged – suggesting laughter in the other recent experiences are the catalysts is a shade, in this, of Nicolas Poussin’s volatile nature of rage, an emotion that Man-made ravages to the natural world we wear. dark, a manic and uncontrolled release for Hambling’s paintings. While refracted painting Et in Arcadio Ego (1637-38), of refutes the logic and coherence of smooth, are the theme of a group of paintings of of energy. At apparent odds with the desolation into unexpected and allegoric forms, their rustic folk deciphering an inscription on a naturalistic paintwork. animals, a development upon Hambling’s of the animal series is a new group of Made in 2020, or in the long run-up to emotive power continues to burn through. tomb: death intrudes on even the loveliest Edge series of 2017 in which she depicted ‘laughing portraits’. Consisting of close- this century-defining year, Hambling’s A quality of unflinching seeing, stripped rural scene and sunniness carries within Elsewhere, a greater note of hesitancy is dissolving polar icecaps. Made from up views of gleeful faces, these works nod latest works continually transmit that of illusion or sentimentality, unites the it a chilling gravity, and yet the sunlit struck. A diptych from 2018 shows the imagination, these phantasmal, grey- to Hambling’s ‘Laughter’ paintings of same double mood – of humour and seemingly disparate themes of her latest countryside persists in being beautiful, artist materialising out of jumbled letters white images (painted purely from the 1990s, a series in which she similarly horror, of aliveness and mortality. Such output. That quality has, of course, charged with hope. and cyphers, while in a parallel canvas, the varying concentrations of black) include evoked the physical and emotional recurred in her art for decades – sharpened blank rectangle of an unpainted canvas an abandoned baby elephant, a caged doubleness – an accommodation of often by humour, bolstered always by Something of that collision of spirits is hovers accusingly within the clutter of bird and a dancing bear. The caged sensation of laughter, as much as laughter’s seeming opposites – is a hallmark of her humanity – but in her new paintings, the apparent, too, in the earlier painting Hot the studio. Both artist and painting are bird, painted in 2019, seems now like a visual manifestations. Indeed, the art and has been for half a century. Out products of world crises and private self- afternoon, Brompton Cemetery (2018- unmade – yet to cohere. They appear in portent of the coming crisis. The captive semblance of a roaring head in Laughing II of incongruity and contradiction, she finds reckoning, it appears with new intensity. 19), although here, in place of a gentle a reciprocal condition of incompleteness, dancing bear, with its sham happiness, (2018) – possibly originating in memories a means of confronting uncomfortable interplay of spring sunshine and creeping as if – by some inevitable pact – one is an uncomfortable symbol of human of Hambling’s father – has dispersed, in and unresolvable truths, refusing to The spring of 2020 gave rise to Self- mortality, we find a broiling mass of must make the other. Certain words are outrages against nature. Perhaps it could Laughing V (2018), into a silhouette of condition what she sees and feels, and portrait working, in which the act of skulls and live erotic clinches. It is as if a perceivable within the cluster of letters also be taken as a metaphor for the dripping paint, juddering and iridescent achieving a realness that feels increasingly painting expands into a metaphor for bone-heap, the aftermath of a massacre around the crayon-line eyes and face of insincerity – the sustained performance against a pitch-black backdrop. Seen in rare. That clarity of vision makes 2020 an the unpredictability and dynamism of or plague, has become a cruising ground, the artist: NOW, HERE, MAYBE, WHEN. – of contemporary discourse, from the context of her melancholic animal urgent and vital expression of its moment. GALLERY 1

1. Lett, 2017 2. Lett II, 2018 (the artist Lett Haines, 1894-1978) oil on canvas oil on canvas 91.5 x 61 cm 53.5 x 43 cm 3. Self-portrait, 2018-2019 diptych oil on canvas 152.5 x 121.5 cm (each panel) 4. Hot afternoon, Brompton Cemetery, 2018-19 oil on canvas 122 x 152.5 cm 5. Self portrait, 2019 oil on canvas 183 x 213.5 cm 6. Caged, 2019 oil on canvas 152.5 x 122 cm 7. Dawn chorus, 2019 8. Arguing, 2019 oil on canvas oil on canvas 122 x 91.5 cm 91.5 x 122 cm 9. Incursion, China, 2019 10. Wave crashing, 2019 oil on canvas oil on canvas 91.5 x 122 cm 122 x 152.5 cm 11. Self portrait (angry), 2020 12. Mourning, 2020 oil on canvas diptych 152.5 x 122 cm oil on canvas 53.5 x 43 cm (each panel) 13. Covid Spring, 2020 oil on canvas 122 x 91.5 cm 14. Armistice, 2020 15. Incident, 2020 oil on canvas oil on canvas 30.5 x 79 cm 30.5 x 79 cm 16. Self portrait as a baby, 2020 17. Self portrait, working, 2020 oil on canvas oil on canvas 122 cm x 91.5 cm 152.5 x 122 cm 18. Bad day II, 2020 19. Self portrait, 2020 oil on canvas oil on canvas 30.5 x 25.5 cm 152.5 x 122 cm GALLERY 2

20. The last baboon, 2018 oil on canvas 170 x 122 cm 21. Rhino without horn, 2019 22. Baby elephant abandoned, 2019 oil on canvas oil on canvas 122 x 91.5 cm 122 x 91.5 cm 23. Elephant without tusk, 2019 24. Lion in enclosure, 2019 oil on canvas oil on canvas 122 x 91.5 cm 122 x 91.5 cm 25. Arctic, 2019 26. Polar bear, 2019 oil on canvas oil on canvas 122 x 152.5 cm 152.5 x 122 cm 27. The last animal, 2019 28. Young dancing bear, 2019 oil on canvas oil on canvas 86.5 x 71 cm 122 x 91.5 cm GALLERY 3

29. Laughing, 2018 oil on canvas 152.5 x 122 cm 30. Laughing V, 2018 31. Laughing IV, 2018 32. Laughing III, 2018 oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on canvas 86.5 x 61 cm 66 x 61 cm 66 x 61 cm 33. Laughing IX, 2018 34. Laughing VI, 2018 oil on canvas oil on canvas 53.5 x 43 cms 86 x 61 cm 35. Laughing VIII, Francis Bacon, 2018 36. Laughing VII, 2018 oil on canvas oil on canvas 76 x 61 cm 30.5 x 25.5 cm 37. Laughing II, 2018 oil on canvas 66 x 61 cm List of works

GALLERY 1 GALLERY 2 GALLERY 3

1. Lett, 2017 11. Self portrait (angry), 2020 20. The last baboon, 2018 29. Laughing, 2018 (the artist Lett Haines, 1894-1978) oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on canvas 152.5 x 122 cm 170 x 122 cm 152.5 x 122 cm 53.5 x 43 cm 12. Mourning, 2020 21. Rhino without horn, 2019 30. Laughing V, 2018 2. Lett II, 2018 diptych oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on canvas 122 x 91.5 cm 86.5 x 61 cm 91.5 x 61 cm 53.5 x 43 cm (each panel) 22. Baby elephant abandoned, 2019 31. Laughing IV, 2018 3. Self-portrait, 2018-2019 13. Covid Spring, 2020 oil on canvas oil on canvas diptych oil on canvas 122 x 91.5 cm 66 x 61 cm oil on canvas 122 x 91.5 cm 152.5 x 121.5 cm (each panel) 23. Elephant without tusk, 2019 32. Laughing III, 2018 14. Armistice, 2020 oil on canvas oil on canvas 4. Hot afternoon, Brompton Cemetery, oil on canvas 122 x 91.5 cm 66 x 61 cm 2018-19 30.5 x 79 cm oil on canvas 24. Lion in enclosure, 2019 33. Laughing IX, 2018 122 x 152.5 cm 15. Incident, 2020 oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on canvas 122 x 91.5 cm 53.5 x 43 cms 5. Self portrait, 2019 30.5 x 79 cm oil on canvas 25. Arctic, 2019 34. Laughing VI, 2018 183 x 213.5 cm 16. Self portrait as a baby, 2020 oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on canvas 122 x 152.5 cm 86 x 61 cm 6. Caged, 2019 122 cm x 91.5 cm oil on canvas 26. Polar bear, 2019 35. Laughing VIII, Francis Bacon, 2018 152.5 x 122 cm 17. Self portrait, working, 2020 oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on canvas 152.5 x 122 cm 76 x 61 cm 7. Dawn chorus, 2019 152.5 x 122 cm oil on canvas 27. The last animal, 2019 36. Laughing VII, 2018 122 x 91.5 cm 18. Bad day II, 2020 oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on canvas 86.5 x 71 cm 30.5 x 25.5 cm 8. Arguing, 2019 30.5 x 25.5 cm oil on canvas 28. Young dancing bear, 2019 37. Laughing II, 2018 91.5 x 122 cm 19. Self portrait, 2020 oil on canvas oil on canvas oil on canvas 122 x 91.5 cm 66 x 61 cm 9. Incursion, China, 2019 152.5 x 122 cm oil on canvas 91.5 x 122 cm

10. Wave crashing, 2019 oil on canvas 122 x 152.5 cm Biography

Born 1945 EXHIBITIONS 2007 No Straight Lines, Octagon Gallery, PUBLIC SCULPTURE SELECTED PUBLIC Eastern Arts Collection AND INSTALLATION COLLECTIONS 1967 Paintings and Drawings, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; STUDIED Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge Hadleigh Gallery, Suffolk Victoria Art Gallery, Bath; Abbot Hall, 1998 A conversation with , Arts Council, England 1960 With Arthur Lett-Haines and Cedric Kendal unveiled Adelaide Street, London, Gainsborough’s House, Sudbury, Suffolk 1973 Paintings and Drawings, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford Morris, Benton End, Hadleigh, Suffolk Waves and Waterfalls, Abbot Hall, Kendal facing Charing Cross Station Government Art Collection Morley College Gallery, London Australian , Canberra 1962-4  School of Art 2008 Waves and Waterfalls, Marlborough 2003 Scallop, a sculpture to celebrate Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China 1977 New Oil Paintings, Birmingham City Art Gallery , unveiled 1964-7 Camberwell School of Art Warehouse Gallery, London Fine Art, London Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon beach, Suffolk British Council 1967-9 Slade School of Art 1981 Drawings and Paintings on View, 2009 George Always — Portraits of George Melly Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston National Gallery, London by Maggi Hambling, Walker Art Gallery, 2010 The Brixton Heron, London AWARDS Liverpool; National Portrait Gallery, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China Hartlebury Castle, Worcestershire 1983 Pictures of Max Wall, National Portrait 2013 War Requiem, installation, SNAP, 1969 Boise Travel Award, New York London Gallery, London and tour purchased for Snape Maltings by the Castle Museum, Norwich Hepworth, Wakefield 1977 Arts Council Award The Sea — Paintings by L S Lowry and Monument Trust 1987 Maggi Hambling, Serpentine Gallery, Chelmsford and Essex Museum Hereford Cathedral 1980-1 First Artist in Residence, Maggi Hambling, The Lowry, Salford, The Resurrection Spirit, unveiled London and tour Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London Imperial War Museum, London National Gallery, London Manchester St Dunstan’s Church, Mayfield, 1988 Moments of the Sun, Arnolfini, 2010 Maggi Hambling — The Wave, East Sussex Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich Jerwood Foundation 1995 Jerwood Painting Prize Bristol and tour (with ) Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge The Winchester Tapestries, Contemporary Art Society National Gallery, London 1991 An Eye Through a Decade, Yale Center New Sea Sculpture, Marlborough Fine Deutsche Bank Created OBE for British Art, Newhaven, Connecticut installed Winchester Cathedral National Portrait Gallery, London Art, London 2005 Marsh Award for Excellence 1992 The Jemma Series, monotypes, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester 2010-1 Objects in Mind, Freud Museum, in Public Sculpture for Scallop Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London London Reading Museum 2010 Created CBE 1993 Dragon Morning, works in clay, 2012 You are the Sea, installation, SNAP Royal Free Hospital, London CCA Galleries, London BOOKS (Art at the ) 1993-4 Towards Laughter, Maggi Hambling, Rugby Collection 2001 Maggi and Henrietta: Drawings of 2013 Wall of Water, The Hermitage, Northern Centre for Contemporary Art, Ruth Borchard Collection of Self Portraits Henrietta Moraes by Maggi Hambling, St Petersburg, Russia Sunderland and tour Snape Maltings John Berger, Bloomsbury, London 2014 Walls of Water, National Gallery, London 1996 Sculpture in Bronze, Marlborough Father, facsimile of the sketchbook St Mary’s Church, Hadleigh, Suffolk Fine Art, London 2015 War Requiem and Aftermath, in the British Museum, Morley College Cultural Institute at King’s College, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, 1997 A Matter of Life and Death, Bothy Gallery, London Somerset House, London Gallery, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Edinburgh 2006 Maggi Hambling, The Works and Wakefield, West Yorkshire 2016-7 Maggi Hambling: Touch, Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh Conversations with Andrew Lambirth, The British Museum, London Unicorn Press, London A Statue for Oscar Wilde, National Southampton Art Gallery Portrait Gallery, London 2018 The Quick and the Dead, Hastings 2009 George Always, Walker Art Gallery, Contemporary, Hastings Swindon Museum and Art Gallery Liverpool Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin New Portraits, Marlborough Fine Art, , London 2000 Good Friday, Gainsborough’s House, You Are the Sea, Lux Books, Suffolk London Sudbury, Suffolk The Ivy, London The Sea, Lowry Press, Salford 2019 For beauty is nothing but the beginning of 2001 Henrietta Moraes by Maggi Hambling, The Minories, Colchester 2010 The Aldeburgh Scallop, terror, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China Marlborough Fine Art, London Usher Gallery, Lincoln Full Circle Editions, Suffolk For beauty is nothing but the beginning of Father, Morley College Gallery, London 2015 War Requiem and Aftermath, Maggi terror, Guangdong Museum of Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, London 2003 The Very Special Brew Series, Hambling and James Cahill, Unicorn Guangzhou, China Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool Press, London Sotheby’s, London Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester 2016 Touch: works on paper, Jennifer North Sea Paintings, Snape Maltings Ramkalawon, Lund Humphries, London Concert Hall Gallery, Suffolk Winchester Cathedral 2020 Quotidie, Maggi Hambling and James 2006 Portraits of People and the Sea, Yale Center for British Art, Newhaven, Cahill, Middleplane, London Marlborough Fine Art, London Connecticut LONDON

6 Albemarle Street London, W1S 4BY Telephone: +44 (0)20 7629 5161 Telefax: +44 (0)20 7629 6338 [email protected] www.marlboroughgallery.com

ISBN 978-1-909707-62-7

Portrait of the artist and all photography by Douglas Atfield

Design: Bright Design London Print: Impress Print Services

© 2020 Marlborough