For his new exhibition in the Gallery at
Roche Court, we have selected a series of
paintings by John Hubbard from the 1960s
which evoke the coastlines of Dorset and
Cornwall.
The American-born Hubbard had only just
settled in the UK at that point in time and the
influence of abstract expressionism on his
use of texture and colour is clear. Looking at
these works today, we also see the extent to
which Hubbard brought a fresh eye and
radical technique to the traditions of English
landscape painting. Yet Hubbard also
acknowledged his affinity with the landscape
painters of the past such as Turner and
Courbet.
In the works selected for this exhibition, Hubbard’s unique sense of ‘place’ has been
rendered in his characteristically dramatic fashion. Instead of portraying the specific features
of a location, Hubbard merges light and landscape together with sky and sea to create an
overall atmosphere and feeling.
John Hubbard was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut (USA) and educated at Harvard
University. Having completed military service in Japan, in 1956-58 he studied at the Art
Students League in New York and with Hans Hofmann in Provincetown, Mass. Hubbard
lived in Rome for two years before settling in Dorset in 1961, the year in which he also had
his first exhibition with the New Art Centre. John Hubbard’s work is in major public and
private collections around the world including the Art Gallery of Ontario; Philadelphia
Museum of Art; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and Yale Center for British Art
and in the UK in Tate; the Arts Council Collection; British Council; the Scottish National
Gallery of Modern Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum. He has had solo exhibitions at the
Fitzwilliam Museum; Waddesdon Manor; Modern Art, Oxford; the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
amongst many others as well as an exhibition of twenty five years of drawings at Kew
Gardens.