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Lithograph from three aluminium plates printed in three shades of black, with hand colouring in watercolour (black wash border, pink wash ground) and gouache (a red wash ground, yellow and crimson). Edition 50; this impression AP 13/16. Signed by the artist with initials and numbered AP 13/16 lower center in white pencil. Printed from two of the same plates as Sand, 1983.
The rectangular core of this elemental composition explodes with color: deep red and pink in gouache and watercolor are framed with black and grey brushstrokes. The expressive mark-making in this print is an example of the artist’s movement in the late 70s towards pronounced gestures. Hodgkin used his hand as a mark-making tool, combining these textures with loose and urgent brushwork. A spatter of orange enhances this sense of movement.
Blood evinces the increase in emotional content and intensity in Hodgkin’s work after the late 1970s. His marks are more fluid and lush due to an increased looseness of handling. These later works show a richness and a surface texture previously lacking – mainly due to the application of gouache or watercolor by hand but also to the more tonal techniques of aquatint and soft-ground etching with chalk-like lines.
