Drawing the Line

Drawing the Line

Postby Ed Hodgkinson » Thu Nov 08, 2012 2:17 pm

Drawing the Line is Ed Hodgkinson's first solo show at Browse and Darby.
He will show work derived from one fundamental source; drawing. Large scale enamel on aluminium paintings are juxtaposed with large charcoal on paper drawings alongside smaller drawn and painted works.

For Hodgkinson, drawing is an abstract translation from the seen, the drawn line like a stream of consciousness, or as Erika Naginski describes it ‘...an activity that exemplifies an imagination in flux’. Consequently Hodgkinson's practice meanders lyrically between line and form, re-evaluating the tradition of mark making, from the spontaneous to the sustained. Hodgkinson transposes the qualities of chance, spontaneity & abbreviation found in line drawing directly into his painting allowing a sense of free-flowing movement and vitality to occur. Other works however meditate upon the sculptural qualities produced through prolonged observation.

Ed Hodgkinson (1973) lives and works in London. He has exhibited widely, in London and internationally, showing in; LA, Tokyo, Cape Town, Stockholm, New York and Reykjavik. He studied at Camberwell College of Art.

Exhibition runs;
7 - 30 November 2012
Monday - Friday 10 - 5.30
Saturday 11 - 2

Browse & Darby
19 Cork Street
London
W1S 3LP

for more info please contact
art@browseanddarby.co.uk

http://www.edhodgkinson.com
Attachments
Georgia-copy.jpg
'Georgia', Charcoal on Paper, 153 x 122cm, 2012
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Re: Drawing the Line

Postby CAP » Thu Nov 22, 2012 12:03 am

Definitely liking the charcoal drawings Ed, it's hard to judge the scale of the aluminium 'drawings' from the site but on screen they have a certain intimacy (was reminded of Rodin's drawings actually). I even looked at the older stuff - from around 2003 - bit of a Gary Hume tip there. Maybe that's where the aluminium support comes from?

:)
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Re: Drawing the Line

Postby Ed Hodgkinson » Thu Nov 29, 2012 11:39 am

Thanks CAP. The charcoals are very new... it's good to have them out there.
The enamel on aluminium paintings are actually quite large, biggest ones around 160x122cm, but they're all derived from smaller drawings (A4ish) done
from a model. The idea is to keep the spontaneity from a small relatively quick line drawing and transpose to a larger work. Honoured that they reminded you of Rodin's drawings...
there was a lovely show of his drawings & watercolours at the Musee Rodin earlier this year. His watercolours completely blew me away when I first saw them around 10 years ago, so raw, free and
beautiful. A man in complete mastery of what he was doing but willing to push it to the edge & beyond. I find drawings are very often the most honest work an artist does... they can be less contrived
than 'more important' work.
There was definitely a Hume influence in the early days which is indeed where the aluminium support came from, but I found too much colour got in the way of what the line/drawing was saying.
Hume can be a great colourist, and knows how to compose a painting... at times... but I'm more interested in what drawing can say.
If you have a chance, have a look at the watercolours on my site, in the work on paper section. http://www.edhodgkinson.com If anything I do does, they make me think of Rodin when I'm painting them.
Attachments
wc20-copy.jpg
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Re: Drawing the Line

Postby CAP » Fri Nov 30, 2012 12:26 pm

Yes your attachment is a good example there. I see the connection to Rodin obviously. They’re interesting given your commitment to line, because they’re more or less the antithesis of line, a kind of sprawling tonality reined in at outline or silhouette, so that the feeling for volume is also quite fresh or exploratory. I take it the quality you want from the line is that directness or spontaneity, where the line just kind of hangs in space or on an empty ground - quite the opposite of Hume, where they’re more like templates.

With your ink ones, the feeling is maybe a bit more diffident or elliptical, a bit more Matisse say, than the fluidity of Rodin, on second inspection. Although that said, apparently Rodin often used to trace off his drawings using that most traditional of lightboxes – the studio window. If he liked a particular gesture or line he’d just copy it off holding a new sheet over the drawing pressed to the window and then play around with washes etc on the copy. So, maybe the distance from Hume not so great after all…

But the technique of letting the pigment (ink or watercolour) spread on moist paper – or just working generously wet on wet - although satisfyingly spontaneous in outcome, is sort of owned for me now by Marlene Dumas. Not that I think you’re figures are really aiming for that territory. Just saying, whenever I see those great flareouts of tone in works on paper, it’s the Dumas brand that registers. Your recent charcoal drawings on the other hand seem to work at a ground rather than strictly tone. I like this grey, smudgy base you use for the close-ups of faces. Line on top of that suddenly has quite a different feel, more measured, emphatic. Not that the drawings strictly get into any more modelling or volume this way, they just have this fuller sense of a process. I think it’s Lydia 2012 (No 13?) where the eyes and nose are literally smudged as well where line really carries over into ground. Wonderful.

(Should I say this one reminded me of some of Kitaj’s drawings of his daughter Dominie, from the mid 70s? Probably not)
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Re: Drawing the Line

Postby Jimbly » Fri Nov 30, 2012 8:16 pm

Gedanzig.
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