© John Hoyland. Photo: Tate.
In the 1970s Hoyland stripped down the formal argument to essentials, but there is nothing austere or unfeeling about the resulting paintings. On the contrary, such works are characterised by an extreme sensitivity to subtle nuances of edge, shape, staining, bleeding, and texture. In this period, these qualities became more pronounced. Echoing physical processes in the real world – fire, water, accretion and effacement – Hoyland's art engaged with the process of making a painting. Having explored the idea of tangible presence within a dream-like space, the formation of that presence now became a central concern.
Whereas his earlier paintings had evoked elusive, enigmatic forms
within imagined spaces, these works advance a greater material reality. Deliberately
rougher and tougher than their predecessors, they use the process of their own
making as a way of building an emphatic, visceral presence. Frequently the process
of change and accretion extended over a period of months. Using a palette knife
on a stained ground, basic forms would be established. These would then be subjected
to a protracted physical engagement involving the build-up of paint, scraping,
sub-dividing and partial or almost complete effacement. The paintings are built
– constructed slowly and inexorably as a wall might be made – to form a real,
robust structure. But at the same time, that constructive process is completely
intuitive and subject to the evolving character of the painting itself. As a result,
the emerging image acquired its own direction and life.