As You'd Been Wont
As You'd Been Wont
Signed Print
Howard Hodgkin
£750-£1,150Value Indicator
$1,550-$2,400 Value Indicator
$1,400-$2,100 Value Indicator
¥7,000-¥11,000 Value Indicator
€900-€1,350 Value Indicator
$7,500-$12,000 Value Indicator
¥140,000-¥220,000 Value Indicator
$1,000-$1,550 Value Indicator
AAGR (5 years) This estimate blends recent public auction records with our own private sale data and network demand.
There aren't enough data points on this work for a comprehensive result. Please speak to a specialist by making an enquiry.
Medium: Aquatint
Edition size: 50
Year: 1991
Size: H 30cm x W 43cm
Signed: Yes
Format: Signed Print
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Auction Results
| Auction Date | Auction House | Location | Hammer Price | Return to Seller | Buyer Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 2022 | Toomey & Co. Auctioneers | United States | |||
| April 2019 | Christie's London | United Kingdom | |||
| September 2018 | Christie's London | United Kingdom | |||
| October 2005 | Christie's London | United Kingdom |
Meaning & Analysis
This signed aquatint print from 1991 is a rare limited edition of 50 from Howard Hodgkin’s The Way We Were series. The horizontal print shows an abstract representation dominated by the warm hues of orange and yellow, which join together with dotted black traces to remind viewers of an old sepia film.
As You’d Been Won’t was the first print produced by Hodgkin to illustrate Susan Sontag’s seminal 1986 novel, The Way We Live Now. The story of the novel revolves around an unnamed man’s struggle with AIDS throughout the 1980s pandemic and recounts the visits to the hospital of his group of friends. As the main character falls more and more ill, the characters dwell on life as they know it. As You’d been Won’t, Hodgkin’s chosen title, therefore, reflects the growing awareness of irrevocable loss, that of their friends’ life but also of their own, that emerges out of the characters’ reflections throughout the book.
Through reference to the book, Hodgkin’s choice of sepia and yellow tones acquire further meaning as a mirror of the characters’ nostalgic and melancholic memories of the past, of a past now lost and irreproducible in the present. Sontag wrote the book at a time when the AIDS pandemic had become a reality permeating not only America but also England and the rest of the world. Hodgkin’s contribution to the dialogue surrounding the AIDS pandemic places this unique print not only at the forefront of Hodgkin’s production on paper but mostly at the centre of contemporary history.
British artist Howard Hodgkin was a luminary of abstraction. Representing Britain at the 1984 Venice Biennale, winning the Turner Prize in 1985, and knighted in 1992, Hodgkin established a legacy by pushing the boundaries of convention. Indian culture and painting heavily influenced the artist's work, infiltrating it most obviously in his bold colour choices. Evoking the bliss of exotic travels and past memories, Hodgkin's abstract representations provide an intimate insight into his world. The vibrancy of his palette and expression of the brushstrokes distinguished the artist from his contemporaries, seeing him gain international recognition.
