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Soft-ground etching with hand coloring in black gouache on grey BFK Rives mould made paper. Signed by the artist, dated 79, and numbered 59/100 lower center in red crayon. Printed from the same plate as Thinking Aloud in the Museum of Modern Art, this print was previously titled “Not Quite Alone in the Museum of Modern Art,” suggesting an erotic dalliance in the museum.
This print depicts an abstracted scene, perhaps a window and a door, in Hodgkin’s signature painterly style. The expressive mark-making in this print is an example of the artist’s movement in the late 70s towards pronounced gestures. Beside bold black strokes, his fingerprints form areas of texture. Always seeking greater richness in his prints, Hodgkin layered ink and hand coloring in this print, rendering each print in the edition unique.
Howard Hodgkin was introduced to the etching technique used in All Alone in the Museum of Modern Art at Petersburg Press, where this print was produced and where he would become a long-time collaborator. This technique allowed him to work fluidly and spontaneously, creating the moody interior scenes that mark Hodgkin’s work from the late 70s and early 80s.
Part of a series of four prints set in the Museum of Modern Art, New York (Late Afternoon, Early Evening, Thinking Aloud, and All Alone in the Museum of Modern Art). At earlier stages, these four prints were called by other titles: ‘Alone in the Museum of Modern Art’, ‘Not Quite Alone in the Museum of Modern Art’, “Inside the Museum of Modern Art’, ‘Talking about Modern Art’, and ‘Shadows in the Museum of Modern Art.’
Copies of this print are in the collections of the Tate, London; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; British Museum, London; and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
