For Jack
Signed Print

For Jack, like For Antony and For Bernard Jacobson, is one of the few prints that the artist explicitly dedicated to his loved ones, in this case, Jack Shirreff. Perhaps more than anyone else, Jack Shirreff, a master printer, has been a defining figure in the artistic career of the artist and his commitment to printmaking. The two, after meeting in 1986, worked together repeatedly at 107 Workshop, where Hodgkin used to produce most of his prints. It was Shirreff, notably, that introduced the artist to the printing technique of carborundum, a technique that uses a mixture of carbon and silicon to lend the print a tactile and painterly low relief effect and texture. This technique proved fundamental in Hodgkin’s production and enabled him to add emotional intensity to his works, as evident in his As Time Goes By series.

The print has proven particularly popular amongst Hodgkin collectors and has been featured repeatedly in exhibitions such as Cristea Roberts’ 2019 retrospective Howard Hodgkin: Strictly Personal and in the Barbican Art Gallery Tour at the Victoria Art Gallery, where it was displayed in 2006.