Two exhibitions showcasing the work of Sheffield-born artist John Hoyland to open in the city's Millennium Gallery
This weekend sees the opening of the first of two exhibitions celebrating the work of acclaimed Sheffield-born artist John Hoyland (1934-2011) at the city’s Millennium Gallery. Strange Presence: John Hoyland Paintings begins on Saturday in the gallery’s smaller exhibition space. Curated by Sam Cornish and Wiz Patterson Kelly of the Hoyland Estate, it showcases ten of Hoyland’s vibrant abstract paintings including several of his large-scale works alongside sketchbooks, photographs and archive film, offering a rare insight into the artist’s wider inspiration and creative practice.
Hoyland studied at Sheffield College of Art before going on to the Royal Academy in London in the 1950s. At that time the abstract expressionist movement in the United States was really starting to make its mark. “Hoyland was particularly excited by the American abstract artists Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko and he went on to meet quite a few of the artists involved in the movement in the 1960s when he lived and worked in New York,” says Cornish. “You can see that the paintings that he made in the 1960s and 70s were influenced by them. Hoyland was one of the most important British painters who responded to American abstract expressionist painting.”
There are two groupings of paintings in the exhibition. The first is labelled ‘Constructing Painting’. “Hoyland was looking to sculptures by his contemporaries, for example the work of his great friend Anthony Caro, to have a kind of physicality in his painting,” says Cornish. In the second grouping, entitled ‘Imagining Sculpture’ there is work from the 1980s onwards when Hoyland was experimenting with making work that was less abstract. There is also a collection of polaroid photographs on display. “The polaroid photographs give a sense of his thought processes,” says Cornish. “He had a collection of African and Oceanic sculptures and there are a number of paintings from the 1990s and early 2000s where he was using them as subject matter – he would pose them in his studio and paint them – we have included a couple of those paintings. I hope the exhibition shows that Hoyland was one of the most dynamic and exciting abstract artists of the second half of the 20th century. He never stopped evolving.”
Our Yorkshire Post newsletter is packed with our best stories - sign up now
In 1994 at the age of 60 Hoyland working at the Royal College of Art created around 25 ceramic sculptural works which he described as “these mad little hybrids.” That phrase inspired the title of the second exhibition. These Mad Hybrids: John Hoyland and Contemporary Sculpture opens in the other gallery space next month and will run alongside Strange Presence until May. Originally shown last year at the RWA (Royal West of England Academy) in Bristol, the exhibition, curated by artist Olivia Bax, features 11 of the ceramic sculptures alongside work by ten contemporary sculptors. They include Phyllida Barlow, Caroline Achaintre, Eric Bainbridge, Hew Locke, Anna Reading, Jessi Reaves, Andrew Sabin, John Summers, Chiffon Thomas – and Bax herself.
The seeds of the exhibition were sown when Cornish invited Bax to come and view the sculptures in Hoyland’s studio. “I hadn’t known that Hoyland made sculpture, so I was really curious to see them,” says Bax. “I thought they were so interesting and even though they had been made 30 years ago they felt so contemporary and of today. That started a whole discussion with Sam about getting these sculptures out and showing them. This is only the second time these works have been publicly displayed since they were made.” Cornish adds: “Because Hoyland was best known as an abstract painter, we wanted to show how his painting had in fact engaged with sculpture in a slightly hidden way throughout his whole career.”
The ceramic works were the first time that Hoyland had worked in that form since he was a child studying at the junior art school in Sheffield. “There was a pamphlet published at the time that he made the works in 1994; in it Hoyland talked about how much he enjoyed the freedom of working in 3D,” says Bax. “He spoke of the interesting things he could do with colour and the possibility of bringing humour into the works. They are playful, awkward and funny.” Selecting the artists to show alongside Hoyland’s hybrids took those qualities as starting points. “We chose contemporary artists whose sculptures would work in dialogue with Hoyland’s and who had a similar interest in colour, materiality and process,” says Bax. “The exhibition is showing where sculpture is today and positioning Hoyland in that slightly different canon,” says Bax. “It is great to be able to celebrate both Hoyland and sculpture as a discipline that is still pushing boundaries and exploring a diverse range of subjects, materials and themes.”
Strange Presence: John Hoyland Paintings, January 18-May 18; These Mad Hybrids: John Hoyland and Contemporary Sculpture, February 20-May 18; Millennium Gallery, Sheffield. Free entry. sheffieldmuseums.org.uk