1982, oil on canvas, 229.9 x 66.1 cm
Lent by  © UCL Art Collections, University College London (Mary Richgitz Prize 1982)

Flower Panel 1

Charlotte Hodes (b. 1959)

This flower piece, with a flowing abstract composition was one of two such panels winning a prize at the Slade in 1982.

Charlotte Hodes has been Associate Artist at the Wallace Collection, where her digitally originated paper cuts and hand-painted ceramics were inspired by the 18th century French paintings and Sèvres porcelain in the Collection.

1979–80, silkscreen print (signed in pencil and numbered 35/75), 76.5 x 54 cm, British Academy Collection (© Tom Phillips)

Levels of Allegory (Veltro)

Tom Phillips (b. 1937)

Illustration to Dante’s Inferno, Canto I.4

The Veltro, or hound, represents a saviour figure who has been variously identified. Phillips adapts the ancient four–fold interpretation of the Bible in these four horizontal images, from the bottom upwards: I. Literal: conveyed by the greyhound; II. Direct allegory: the greyhound as saviour of Italy; III. Moral allegory: the sword, spiritual power of the Church, temporal power of the Prince; IV. Anagogical or mystical: the greyhound in Purgatorio, referring to the moral force implicit in leadership itself.

As well as a painter and printmaker, Tom Phillips is a scholar and a musician, and his long-standing concern with lettering and book design came to fruition in his illustrations to Dante’s Inferno which was published with his own translation in 1985.

1975 and 1977, silkscreen print (signed and dated in pencil and numbered 10/200 and 110/200 respectively), 99 x 69 cm, British Academy Collection (© Eduardo Paolozzi)

Two prints from Calcium Night Light: No. 5: Aeschylus and Socrates (top); No. 9: Nettleton

Sir Eduardo Paolozzi (1924–2005)

The Calcium Night Light series of nine prints is dedicated to the American composer Charles Ives (1874–1954) and the titles come from Ives’ own titles for his songs. The patterns of lines suggest direction and flow as in the scoring of music and some of the shapes are based on musical instruments.

Paolozzi, born of Italian parents in Glasgow, was one of the outstanding British artists of the 20th century. His magazine collages of 1947 proclaimed him as one of the founders of Pop art and he subsequently became widely known as a sculptor. He was also one of the first to exploit the possibilities of silkscreen from the early ‘60s. In 1974–5 he lived in Berlin and, under the influence of the revolution in music between 1900 and 1910, he produced several suites of prints devoted to music and musicians.