Alan Cristea Gallery 20th Anniversary Exhibition: new Hodgkin print

To celebrate its 20th birthday, and to recognise Alan Cristea’s significant contribution to print publishing, the gallery staged a special Anniversary Exhibition. Unbeknownst to Alan himself, twenty-one artists were asked to make a print in an edition of 40 for an anniversary portfolio.

The artists were: Gillian Ayres, Christiane Baumgartner, Gordon Cheung, Michael Craig-Martin, Ian Davenport, Edmund de Waal, Jan Dibbets, Jim Dine, Marie Harnett, Howard Hodgkin, Ben Johnson, Allen Jones, Langlands & Bell, Ian McKeever, Julian Opie, Mimmo Paladino, Lisa Ruyter, Joe Tilson, Paul Winstanley, Richard Woods and Catherine Yass.

Hodgkin’s contribution was the print Herb Garden. The edition has now sold out and all proceeds have gone to charity.

Hodgkin reflected on his work with Cristea: “I first worked with Alan when he was part of Waddington Graphics. That was in 1986/87 for Red Palm and Black Palm. There were solo print exhibitions in 1991 and 1998 but the first time I worked with Alan as an independent publisher was with Venetian Views in 1995. They were made with Jack Shirreff at 107 Workshop in Wiltshire. Alan made it easy for me to work with Jack, mostly by keeping out of the way. That may sound a negative but it’s not always so easy. Printing, unlike painting, is a collaborative process and the less people meddle, the better. Alan never intruded or queried what I wanted to do, even when I made a print that was 20 ft. long ….

Over the years we have grown and grown old together. He has built up a formidable team and inspired them to match his standards as a professional. He’s now a global force, with a major presence at all the world’s important art fairs. Visitors report back, dazzled by the impact his stands have in Basel, Hong Kong, New York etc. I owe him a lot.

I said he’d grown and the fruit of that was the exhibition in the summer of 2014, Green Thoughts, the best prepared, best documented, best presented and received show I’ve ever had, thanks to the care that Alan and his team lavished on it.”

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