• About
    • Our Story
    • Meet The Team
    • Meet The Board
    • ACT Mission Statement
    • ACT Aims & Objectives
    • Contact Us
  • YearOfTheRoses
  • Testimonials
  • Podcasts
  • Blog
  • More...
    • Events >
      • Cultures Crossing >
        • CC - 2019
        • ACT 2 - 2014
      • Garden Art
      • 2018 Ghost Bus Roads
      • OUTHERE - 2017 >
        • OUT THERE - ENSEMBLE
        • OUT THERE - SOLO
      • 2017 Ghost Bus Project
    • Cultural Exchange >
      • Venice 2019
      • Rome 2017
      • Tuscany 2015
    • Artists >
      • Marysia Zipser
      • Promoted Artists >
        • Joe Ganech (Belgium)
        • Marcus Gilmore (UK)
        • Pam Miller (UK)
        • Rand Heidinger (Canada)
        • Sara Gaynor (UK)
        • Theresa Moynes (Ireland)
      • Guest Artists >
        • Roberto Alborghetti (Italy)
    • Screen Media Room
    • Partners & Sponsors
    • NottsTV - ACTive
ART - CULTURE - TOURISM
  • About
    • Our Story
    • Meet The Team
    • Meet The Board
    • ACT Mission Statement
    • ACT Aims & Objectives
    • Contact Us
  • YearOfTheRoses
  • Testimonials
  • Podcasts
  • Blog
  • More...
    • Events >
      • Cultures Crossing >
        • CC - 2019
        • ACT 2 - 2014
      • Garden Art
      • 2018 Ghost Bus Roads
      • OUTHERE - 2017 >
        • OUT THERE - ENSEMBLE
        • OUT THERE - SOLO
      • 2017 Ghost Bus Project
    • Cultural Exchange >
      • Venice 2019
      • Rome 2017
      • Tuscany 2015
    • Artists >
      • Marysia Zipser
      • Promoted Artists >
        • Joe Ganech (Belgium)
        • Marcus Gilmore (UK)
        • Pam Miller (UK)
        • Rand Heidinger (Canada)
        • Sara Gaynor (UK)
        • Theresa Moynes (Ireland)
      • Guest Artists >
        • Roberto Alborghetti (Italy)
    • Screen Media Room
    • Partners & Sponsors
    • NottsTV - ACTive

Marysia's blog - IVON HITCHENS - Space through Colour

23/2/2020

2 Comments

 

​Djanogly Gallery, Lakeside Arts, University of Nottingham

I had the pleasure of experiencing a retrospective exhibition tour of Ivon Hitchens (1893-1979) led by writer Peter Khoroche who got to know the artist personally during the last ten years of his life in Sussex.

The exhibition considered a full scope of the artist's career spanning a remarkable six decades.  The gallery was divided into four areas from Beginnings 1920s to his final years 1960s - 1970s enabling a wonderful sweeping walk through nature's landscapes and personal scenarios from daily life.  It was visually and emotionally uplifting to watch his colour palette change over the years and heighten in the last decade of his life into almost abstract expressionism.

Peter Khoroche began his tour explaining about Hitchens' early life and start of his career.  I took notes of his talk so this is the result of them.  His father, Alfred Hitchens, was a Royal Academy member who made his main income as a portrait painter.  After leaving St John's Wood Art School, Ivon entered the Royal Academy Painting School in 1911, and in 1919 he set up his artist's studio in Hampstead, London.  1920 saw his first mixed exhibition and in 1925 his first solo exhibition.  It was the start of a "twenty-year struggle, with sallies to Shropshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Sussex".  
Peter urged us to see "the beauty of his brush works, his sheer bravura".  For sixty years he was passionate about his art.  Ivon always carefully thought out the type of canvas he would use.  Peter remembered seeing about 100 brushes carefully stored from decorator brushes to the finest brushes in the studio.  

Ivon was finding his way, through the Arts & Crafts world, and had a strong spirited side, always sensitive and sensitized.  He focused on landscapes, rarely touching hills, mountains - trees and woodlands were his comfort zone. 

In 1935 he married Mary 'Mollie' Coates.  In 1940 their Swiss Cottage home was bombed and they moved to live near Petworth, West Sussex north of the Downs.  Here they stayed until 1979, starting out in a real gypsy caravan with no electricity so it was tough going.  As the years went on, they added a studio and built on a flat- roofed bungalow called "Greenleaves".   This area became very important to him.  He never owned a car so painted in his woodland garden or near his house.  It was the experience of place that meant so much to him.  They scraped a living but prevailing all, he had an iron will and sense of humour, and could be very serious but charming. Above everything, he wished to give pleasure, and he knew his own worth.  

Ivon had very good patrons to help him.  Howard Bliss, son of Arthur Bliss, was one of them who collected Ivon's paintings from 1944, and he loaned many of them to exhibitions around the world.
He made friends with Ben Nicholson and his wife Winifred, and Henry Moore, and in 1925 he stayed with them in Cumberland.  Inspiration came to him on discovering Cezanne and Roger Fry's "Vision" and Clive Bell's "Art".  Colour and colour composition were his focus and, thanks to Winifred, a lighter palette and paring down.

In 1936 and during the wartime he turned to wide format canvases.  He met Mr and Mrs Cecil Harris in 1929, who were to become Hitchens' first major patrons for the following ten years.  Hitchens was very interested in the composition, becoming more and more intrinsically pleasing using vertical and horizontal brush movements.  Every scene was well plotted, and he had to paint in front of the subject or motif. It was the tension between Nature versus chaos and then bringing order into chaos.

​He was a master colourist with space and hence the title of this exhibition.  One can see he was much influenced by Cezanne, Matisse and Braque, and in some parts I think by Dufy.  We enter the 1950 to 1960s area where we see water pools with white priming providing the sunlight.  'Colour is descriptive.'  The 'River Pool' 1955 is very powerful and we discover Ivon's work is getting more abstract.  
In the 1970s, we see, from the below images, brighter and broader sweeps becoming more and more abstract.

I am not a professional artist but I do know how to look at paintings and to 'read' them.  In the 1970s I lived and worked for most part in London, Islington being my home territory.  For me, the colours and musical vibrancy of this time among the architects, designers and media houses I worked for, brought the final stages of Hitchens' artworks of the exhibition really close to me.  They sang the same tune; I wore the same colours so this area really 'hit' home with the swathes of pinks, purples, blues, turquoises, reds, maroons, mustard and eggy yellows.   This exhibition was my first introduction to Ivon Hitchens and I left elated at the discovery of such a master of colour and space who brought Nature up close and personal.    
Picture


​Thank you Peter Khoroche for telling us the story and journey of Ivon Hitchens as you knew and understood him.  You certainly 'sold' his art to me...and your book at the Djanogly shop!  Thank you for signing and dating it for me, because now I'm delving even more into the beauty of Ivon's brush works and appreciating his sheer bravura.

Left - photo of Peter looking at his favourite painting - Spring Day. 1973.  'Not bad for an 80 year artist!' as you said.  

​

Picture




Ivon Hitchens by Peter Khoroche
Published by Lund Humphries
£25.00 from bookshops & on line.


My photographs of the artworks account for only a small part of the exhibition and I have captioned them as best I can.  Spec details will be added to those not captioned.


This exhibition ran from 2 November 2019 - 23 February 2020.  For further exhibitions and events at Lakeside Arts, University of Nottingham, see https://www.lakesidearts.org.uk/

Below are some black and white photographs of Ivon Hitchens I selected which are captioned and photo credited.

Marysia Zipser
​23.2.20
2 Comments
David Hunter
5/4/2020 12:33:58

I got a lot of pleasure from seeing Ivon Hitchen's work during the 60s when I was at art school, although the number of his works at the Laing in Newcastle was small. I did however see some more of his pictures when I toured the country; this is the first time I have seen a large collection like this and it is very creditable to the University to have arranged an exhibition of this importance in Nottingham.
I met Winifred Nicholson briefly when she lived in Brampton and supported Lee Y Chee gallery and the Chinese man who ran this. It was a building converted form a couple of labourers' cottages using his own labour. He got some famous names exhibiting there including people like Anthony Caro and some of the Constructovist artists. Various local artists exhibited there as well; the Brampton are was a Mecca for artists and there was Barkers of Lannercost nearby. I saw some of Ben Nicholson's drawings and releifs, one of which was a study of roofs and chimney pots, probably for the St Ives period, which I enjoyed seeing.
I always enjoy my visits to the Djanogly where there always si something to see worth the journey and there's the added attraction of the splendid park and lake where I have had many interesting walks.

Reply
Marysia Zipser link
7/4/2020 13:41:29

Many thanks David for your enlightened comments. So pleased you enjoyed the Ivon Hitchens exhibition and his art and how his artworks brought back memories for you. Great to learn you met Winifred Nicholson who supported Lee Y Chee gallery, his support of Anthony Caro and Constructovist artists. I,like you, love Ben Nicholson art. I agree, the Djanogly Gallery at University of Nottingham is a wonderful place and worth any journey together with its splendid park and surroundings.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Authors

    All the ACT artists and management team contribute to this blog. Press Releases, Reviews, Events and Calls to Participate are posted here too.

    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017

    Categories

    All
    2019
    2020
    ACT Interns
    ACTive
    Attenborough Nature Reserve
    Beeston Local
    Business Desk
    Chilwell
    Culture Exchange
    Cultures Crossing
    Dublin
    Edited By Caron Lyon
    EPK
    Events
    Ghost Bus Project
    Guest Blog
    Hoodwinked
    Joe Ganech
    Land Rover Mapping
    Launches
    London
    Lord Mayor Of Nottingham
    Marcus Gilmore
    Maryisa's Posts
    Marysia's Blog
    Messages
    Mike Lindtner
    Monetisation
    Nottingham
    OUT THERE
    Pam Miller
    Partner Programme
    Partnership Programme
    Photography
    Press Release
    Product Placement
    Promotion
    Regional Press
    Review
    Roberto Alborghetti
    Robin Hood
    Ronin Hood
    Sheriff Of Nottingham
    The Ghost Bus Project
    The Hive
    Theresa Moynes
    Travel
    Updates
    Wolaton Hall & Deer Park
    Xmas

Featured Partner Sponsors
Picture
more... ACT Partners & Sponsors
All images of artwork are used with permission of the respective artist
copyright in all instances belongs to the artist.
Proudly powered by Weebly
Privacy Notice
  • About
    • Our Story
    • Meet The Team
    • Meet The Board
    • ACT Mission Statement
    • ACT Aims & Objectives
    • Contact Us
  • YearOfTheRoses
  • Testimonials
  • Podcasts
  • Blog
  • More...
    • Events >
      • Cultures Crossing >
        • CC - 2019
        • ACT 2 - 2014
      • Garden Art
      • 2018 Ghost Bus Roads
      • OUTHERE - 2017 >
        • OUT THERE - ENSEMBLE
        • OUT THERE - SOLO
      • 2017 Ghost Bus Project
    • Cultural Exchange >
      • Venice 2019
      • Rome 2017
      • Tuscany 2015
    • Artists >
      • Marysia Zipser
      • Promoted Artists >
        • Joe Ganech (Belgium)
        • Marcus Gilmore (UK)
        • Pam Miller (UK)
        • Rand Heidinger (Canada)
        • Sara Gaynor (UK)
        • Theresa Moynes (Ireland)
      • Guest Artists >
        • Roberto Alborghetti (Italy)
    • Screen Media Room
    • Partners & Sponsors
    • NottsTV - ACTive