Study for Winter Skies

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Cabinet Office, 70 Whitehall

American-born John Hubbard grew up in Connecticut and studied at Harvard University. While on military service (1953 and 1956) during the Korean War, he was stationed in Japan, where he developed an interest in the art from Japan and East Asia more generally. This grew into an admiration of the traditions of Taoism and Zen; philosophies he equated with the act of abstract painting. He has cited Xie He, the sixth century Chinese painter who wrote: ‘In art, the terms ancient and modern have no place’ – a thought that speaks clearly to the modern abstract painter’s inspiration from wide and eclectic sources.Hubbard studied in New York at the Art Students League from 1956–58. He spent time also working with Hans Hoffmann, an influential abstract painter whose associations with Picasso, Matisse and Braque in Paris in the 1930s, brought those influences to the emerging number of Abstract Expressionist artists in New York. Hubbard moved to England in 1960, settling in Dorset and associating with the St Ives art circle. His painting became infused with light, inspired by the open land and seascapes of Cornwall, Scotland and later, Morocco and Spain. Hubbard participated in residencies in America and Malaysia and, in 1996, won the Jerwood Prize in Britain. In recent years his work has explored the theme of gardens, and he has completed several garden and painting commissions for public and private organisations.

Places

Subjects

abstract, winter, sky

Materials & Techniques

paper (as artists material), oil, oil painting

Artist

John Hubbard (1931 - 2017)

Title

Study for Winter Skies

Date

1963

Medium

Oil on paper

Dimensions

height: 55.50 cm, width: 73.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from the New Art Centre, June 1963

Inscription

bl: John E. Hubbard / 1963

GAC number

6137