Paul Huxley

Untitled No. 92

1968

Not on display

Artist: Paul Huxley born 1938
Medium: Acrylic paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 2032 × 2032 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Purchased 1968
Reference: T01056

Display caption

Like the artists whose work was shown in the 1960 exhibition Situation, Huxley’s work shows a concern with the formal properties of painting.

Here the series of triangles that diminish in size suggests a three dimensional space, as if the lower triangles are nearer than the higher ones. But at the same time the flat bands of colour at the top right emphasise the flatness of the surface. The largest triangle leads the eye to the bottom of the picture, a device Huxley often used to draw attention to the area of the painting below eye-level.

Gallery label, September 2004

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Catalogue entry

Paul Huxley b.1938
T01056 UNTITLED NO. 92 1968
Inscribed ‘Paul Huxley no. 92 1968’ on canvas turnover at top.
Liquitex on canvas, 80×80 (203×203).
Purchased from the artist through the Rowan Gallery (Grant-in-Aid) 1968.
Exh: Rowan Gallery, May 1968 (no number in catalogue).

The artist wrote (6 March 1969) that this work was painted in London in March 1968, and was 'based on a coloured sketch made on paper about twenty inches square and dated June 1967. It is one of a series of paintings (nos. 91, 92, 93, 94) all using a diagonal chain of black shapes running from top left to bottom right together with a group of coloured bands in the top right. These four paintings were all produced in London early in 1968 and based on designs made previously in New York. The first, no. 91, was a projection of a small work on paper made in August 1966.

‘The use of the diagonal chain of shapes mentioned above probably dates back to no. 36 July–November 1964. I've used it often and it still occurs in my recent work’.

Published in:
The Tate Gallery: Acquisitions 1968-9, London 1969