Into the Woods, Autumn, from "Into the Woods"

Howard Hodgkin British

Not on view

Hodgkin's Into the Woods suite, which invokes the four seasons, began with Into the Woods, Winter (see MMA 2010.217.1a,b; 2010.217.2a,b; 2010.217.4a,b).. The prints are named after the eponymous Stephen Sondheim musical, which premiered in New York in 1987. On the stage, Sondheim and his librettist James Lapine spin together characters from numerous fairy tales into a single coming of age story, with the woods serving as a symbol of life and the passage of time. After Winter's completion, Hodgkin used the same eight lithographic plates to produce three more prints in various other vibrant colors. Swirls of Carborundum (a resinous mix of silicon and carbon) used with four of the plates and the addition of hand-applied acrylic make Into the Woods the most painterly of Hodgkin's editions yet—a vertiginous quartet in which his experiments with printmaking come to a luminous climax.

Into the Woods, Autumn, from "Into the Woods", Howard Hodgkin (British, London 1932–2017 London), Lift-ground, aquatint, and carborundum etching on 2 sheets of paper

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