HOWARD HODGKIN "ONE DOWN" LITHOGRAPH, 1981-82

Howard Hodgkin (1932–2017) was a renowned British painter and printmaker, and a central figure in twentieth-century abstraction. Drawing inspiration from everyday life, he rendered sentimental motifs through a shifting synthesis of abstract and representational styles.

Hodgkin's printmaking methods were ambitious, spontaneous, and experimental. Rather than using the medium merely to replicate his paintings, he treated it as an essential site for experimentation; exploring colour, texture, and form with the same emotional intensity that defined his painted work. From the 1970s onward, his prints combined multiple techniques, including hand-colouring and layered processes, creating compositions that were as expressive and painterly as they were formally inventive.

"One Down" (often paired with its companion print "Two to Go") is one of the few monochrome works in Hodgkin’s print output from this period. The layering of printed marks and hand-applied gouache creates a rich, tapestry-like effect. Full of movement and vigour, black dots and dashes highlight a central form, overlaid with grey-washes in differing levels of opacity creating a sense of pictorial depth.

Through his prints, Hodgkin demonstrates that abstraction can carry the weight of memory, emotion, and lived experience, further solidifying his legacy as an artist who blurred the line between image and feeling.

In 1985, Hodgkin was the winner of the Turner Prize and was subsequently knighted in 1992. Today, his work can be found in many major public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Art Gallery of Ontario.

"One down" is in the permanent collection of the MoMa, and the University of Kentucky Art Museum.

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"One down"

1981-82

Numbered "43/100" lower left

Initialed "HH" and dated "81" lower centre

Edition: 100 + 25 APs

36"H 48"W (work)

43.25"H 55.25"W (framed)

Lithograph from three aluminum plates printed in classic black, transparent brown/black and violet black, with hand colouring in gouache (three different greys), on buff Velin Arches mould-made paper (300 gsm).

Proofed and printed by Judith Solodkin at Solo Press Inc., New York

Hand-coloured by Cinda Sparling, New York.

Published by Bernard Jacobson, Ltd., London, 1982

Very good condition.

Literature: Heenk 65

Note: The original owner of the print has stated that the frames were painted by Hodgkin (which he was known to do), but confirmation is pending.