John Hitchens

Aspects of Landscape

Layered Land, 2002 © John Hitchens

A major new exhibition at Southampton City Art Gallery takes a long-overdue look at the work of British painter John Hitchens.

Entitled Aspects of Landscape and arranged over four galleries, the exhibition features more than fifty works spanning almost six decades, giving the viewer a fascinating opportunity to view the artists’ journey from descriptive early works to developing a unique form of abstract painting.

The son and grandson of landscape painters, Hitchens took on this mantle and influenced by the undulating landscape of Sussex and the South Downs where he grew up, has gone on to discover new and vivid connections between form, pattern and light. Throughout his work Hitchens’ explores different ways of seeing the landscape, finding inspiration in the natural forms of the hills, woodlands, seas and skies. Influenced by a phase spent photographing landscape elements, his work began to tend towards abstraction; however, his paintings are not without form: they are physical, visual and expressive.

Land Quest, 2017 © John Hitchens

Harvest Land Forms, 2009 © John Hitchens

The Southampton retrospective, which coincides with the artist’s 80th year, begins with recent paintings from 2000 onwards which have never been shown in public before. These monumental works epitomise the influence aerial photography had on the artist, with the landscape seen from above and reduced to a rich and earthy series of lines and shapes reminiscent of abstract Aboriginal line painting. These works are accompanied by Tottemic painted birch and pine blades rising in a cluster – which Hitchens sees as an extension of his painting. As he says; ‘Who says that a painting must have four corners and must hang on a wall.’

The second gallery explores recurring themes such as the cadence of the seasons, through the use of essential elements such as stones, sand, wood, hills, the sea and cloud formations. The paintings, most of which feature layered canvases, dwell also in the space between painting and sculpture, revealing the influence of three-dimensional art forms such as land art and sculpture. In the third and fourth galleries many of the works illustrate an abstract style characterized by objects made up of lines and dots floating in the space; flowers and other natural elements are reduced to spaces of colour.

John Hitchens, Aspects of Landscape, Installation view, Southampton City Art Gallery, 2020. Photo: A.K.Purkis

Top image: The Wind from Home, 2017 © John Hitchens
Bottom image: Wind over Fields, 2017 © John Hitchens

John Hitchens, Aspects of Landscape, Installation view, Southampton City Art Gallery, 2020. Photo: A.K.Purkis

Through his work, Hitchens makes us re-think our relationship to the land we live in; this, the Anthropocene era, where man’s impact on earth is becoming clear. As with The Anthropocene Project founded by Edward Burtynsky and his collaborators, man’s influence and devastating impact on the future of the earth is now evident, and the need for a sustainable future urgent. In these current deeply troubling current times, Hitchens’ work, with its deep and pure celebration of nature’s beauty and energy can bring us comfort as well as pause for reflection.

The exhibition, which also includes sketchbooks and archival materia. For further information see HERE

The show is also accompanied by the publication of an illustrated monograph with an essay by Caroline Collier, a former director at Tate, a foreword by art historian Andrew Lambirth, as well as an introductory text by Professor Michael Tucker. For further details see HERE

Text by Chiara Croci

Bio

John Hitchens was born in 1940, in Hove, Sussex. He studied at the Bath Academy of Art, Corsh- am, started exhibiting in the 1960s and had his first London solo exhibition in 1964. He has since shown his work in more than 30 solo and group exhibitions. His work is represented in public and private collections in England and overseas. John Hitchens’ father, Ivon Hitchens (1893–1979) and his grandfather Alfred Hitchens (1861–1942) were also painters. His son Simon Hitchens (b.1967) is a sculptor.

www.johnhitchens.com