Bath, UK - Howard Hodgkin Prints is a prestigious new exhibition at the Victoria Art Gallery. Visitors will be able to enjoy the work of one of Britain’s most celebrated artists, whose career was launched at the Bath Academy of Art in the 1950s and who exhibited some of his earliest paintings at the Victoria Art Gallery. A Life in Colour on exhibition from 28 July to 30 September. Having been knighted in 1992 and exhibited in the top museums across the world, Hodgkin returns to Bath with this, his first ever one-man show in the city.

On view are over forty of Hodgkin’s bold, colourful and often very large prints covering the period 1964 – 2006. Many of these prints were made and hand-coloured at the 107 Workshop, just a few miles from Bath. The exhibition presents a unique opportunity to survey the full extent of Hodgkin’s achievement as a printmaker.

Also on view is a large oil painting, 'Staff Meeting, Corsham', painted in 1959-60 when Hodgkin was teaching at the Bath Academy of Art. One of the most important of Hodgkin’s early works, this painting is on special loan from Kettering Art Gallery.

Hodgkin’s prints represent an extraordinary body of work, which is a parallel and very different achievement from his painting. They have been internationally celebrated and passionately collected, but never brought together until now.

Hodgkin uses his prints as a unique means of expression. His images are arrived at through the act of remembering. This demands a slow process of layering, which in turn leads to an astonishing variety of work. Even when created in multiples, each print is unique.

Gallery Manager Jon Benington said:

“Howard Hodgkin’s prints are a glorious celebration of colour, which will delight local visitors and tourists alike. The astonishing variety of his work and individual style mean that each work feels like a new discovery.

Howard Hodgkin Prints is an exhibition organised and toured by Barbican Art Gallery, which is funded and managed by the Corporation of London. It tours to the Victoria Art Gallery from 28 July to 30 September.

The Victoria Art Gallery is a free public facility located in the centre of the beautiful city of Bath. Open all year round, it is visited by 92,000 people annually. The Gallery houses Bath & North East Somerset's collection of paintings, sculpture and decorative arts. The building was designed in 1897 by a Scottish architect, John McKean Brydon. To celebrate Queen Victoria's sixty years on the throne, it was decided to name the Gallery after her. Visit The Victoria Art Gallery at : www.victoriagal.org.uk/