Clive Hicks-Jenkins

Critic Nicholas Usherwood has described the painting of Clive Hicks-Jenkins (b.1951) as 'reflective, expressive painting of the highest order'. From a background as a choreographer and theatre director, Hicks-Jenkins has since the 1990s become increasingly well-known as a painter, producing exploratory sequences of works that embrace diverse subject-matter with a consistent and distinctive vision. His paintings are now held in all the principal public collections in Wales and his artists' books are in libraries worldwide; he is a Royal Cambrian Academician and an Honorary Fellow of Aberystwyth University. This book is the first to survey Clive Hicks-Jenkins' work as a whole, and is published in celebration of the artist's 60th birthday. Its wide-ranging texts, written by poets, novelists and art historians based in Britain and the USA, address the themes inherent in Hicks-Jenkins' different bodies of work: the use of locations in his paintings; his interest in creating theatrical ensembles from familiar objects; the sequence of huge drawings inspired by the Welsh folk tradition of the Mari Lwyd; the important sequence of works made in response to the fragments of a Tuscan altarpiece at Christ Church Picture Gallery; paintings exploring stories of the miraculous; the influence of theatre in the artist's use of puppets as preparatory maquettes; the important role of drawing; the production of artist's books; and Hicks-Jenkins' dialogues with contemporary poets. The book will be welcomed by the artist's growing following of supporters and collectors and by all those with an interest in contemporary narrative painting.