Retrospective 2013
Victoria Gallery, Westmount, Montreal Quebec An exhibition of paintings from 1960 to 2013. Oils, water colours and iPad drawings. Anthony Hobbs' in the Gallery at Victoria Hall traces the artist's career with works from the early 1960s to 2013. We move from intimate sketchbook drawings in black and white to large format paintings on canvas, and finally, expressive drawings with the latest technology — the iPad. While the exhibition but graces the surface of Hobbs' -output as an artist, it bears witness to an aesthetic sensibility singularly intent on continuing to explore pictorial and painterly possibilities, all the while circling back on the recurring motive — the land. Hobbs is no less adept at still life or figure painting, as witnessed by the works on exhibit, but it is the land that he returns and it is in his exploration of this motif that his artistic voice is most fully resolved and poetically resonant. Hobbs's transition from figurative to increasingly abstract paintings is informed by a desire to 'free the paintings from the restraints of the realistic world.' While the land and/or landscape forms continue to be the source of inspiration, the pleasure and impact of the paintings increasingly derive from the development of a very personal painterly language.Hobbs' experimentation with palette and brush and the way in which he moves the paint across the surface of the painting leave, as he notes, a 'history' inside the painting. In a very real sense, this 'history', or process, becomes an integral part of the meaning of the work. The journey evident in this retrospective reveals an artist whose strength lies in his honed craftsmanship but no less in his refusal to sit on his laurels. Anthony Hobbs continues to keenly observe and visually render his perceptions, be it the paintbrush or stylus. He is driven to explore ever novel ways of interpreting his world. The work he leaves in his wake is singular and accomplished. Victoria LeBlanc Curator The Gallery at Victoria Hall Extracts from the exhibition catalogue
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