Maggi Hambling: Maelstrom

Wonderful exhibition at Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert of new work by Maggi Hambling.

I love Hambling’s work so it was a delight to walk past the gallery and find this show. I hadn’t realised that she had a near fatal heart attack in New York in March 2022. She started this set of paintings immediately following her return to her home.

I got a sense both of the joy of life following such an experience and her need to paint to understand what had happened.  I felt a a person who processes life via her art.

I loved the mix of thick impasto paint and a thinner runny medium. The commentary described them as “an intense landscape of experience” and I certainly felt I reacted to some like a sublime landscape. I also thought one small one was a a self-portrait.

Closed 24 November 2023


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