Victoria Art Gallery: From Hogarth to Hodgkin

This wonderful exhibition showcases the best of our print collection. You’ll be able to see the diversity of our prints, with works on display spanning 700 years.

Before industrial techniques came along in the 19th century, artists could only make prints in limited quantities. Yet the process enabled them to reach a wider audience than with paintings. Connoisseurs collected them with enthusiasm bordering on mania. In today’s image-saturated world, it is hard to appreciate how precious prints would have seemed in the past.

Created by dozens of different artists and with a cornucopia of subjects, including landscape, satire, portraiture and views of Georgian Bath, there will be something here to please all art lovers. From Hogarth to Hodgkin features prints by old masters such as Cranach and Durer, but brings the story right up to the present day, with works by Grayson Perry, Cornelia Parker and Paula Rego.

The exhibition includes Hodgkin’s For Jack, 2005. This work is titled in tribute to the artist’s productive working relationship with master printmaker Jack Shirreff. Hodgkin studied at Bath Academy of Art, where he later became a tutor. Here he met fellow teacher Shirreff, who ran the 107 Workshop in Shaw, Wiltshire. Hodgkin and Shirreff developed a close creative partnership in which Hodgkin would make prints and Shirreff would hand colour them to his instructions. This made each and every Hodgkin print unique.

Text provided by Victoria Art Gallery.

Victoria Art Gallery
Bridge Street
Bath
BA2 4AT

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