"The U.K.'s Department for Culture, Media, and Sport placed an export bar on Mrs Acton in Delhi (1967-71), to allow a national institution or gallery to acquire the work. The move follows the work's sale last October at Bonhams auction house in London, where it hammered for £1.7 million ($2.3 million)-marking a new record for Hodgkin, one of Britain's most celebrated painters."
"In press materials, British authorities noted that this particular painting "documents the transition in Hodgkin's style from early Pop art influences to the emotive abstraction that came to define late 20th-century British painting.""
"This large, sensuous scene is a standout specimen from Hodgkin's oeuvre-and a monument to British and Indian diplomacy after Indian independence. The U.K.'s Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA) determined it fit the two of the three Waverley criteria classifying artwork."
The U.K. Department for Culture, Media, and Sport placed an export restriction on Howard Hodgkin's Mrs Acton in Delhi following its October sale at Bonhams for £1.7 million, establishing a new artist record. The painting, created between 1967-71, documents Hodgkin's artistic evolution from Pop art influences toward emotive abstraction. Though Hodgkin avoided traditional figuration, he portrayed lived experiences and emotional landscapes. The work depicts Mrs. Acton, wife of British Council Representative John Stewart Acton, on a Delhi balcony. British authorities recognize the painting's significance as a monument to British-Indian diplomacy following Indian independence. The export bar aims to enable a domestic institution to acquire the work and maintain public accessibility.
Read at Artnet News
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]