Ivon Hitchens (born London, 3 March 1893 – 29 August 1979) was an English

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

who started exhibiting during the 1920s. He became part of the '

London Group The London Group is a society based in London, England, created to offer additional exhibiting opportunities to artists besides the Royal Academy of Arts. Formed in 1913, it is one of the oldest artist-led organisations in the world. It was form ...

' of artists and exhibited with them during the 1930s. His house was bombed in 1940 during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Hitchens and his family abandoned London for the

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

countryside, where he acquired a small area of woodland on Lavington Common (near Petworth), and lived there in a caravan, which he gradually augmented with a series of buildings. It was here that the artist further developed his fascination with the woodland subject matter, and this pre-occupation continued until the artist's death in 1979. Hitchens is particularly well known for panoramic landscape paintings created from blocks of colour. There is a huge mural by him in the main hall of Cecil Sharp House. His work was exhibited in the British Pavilion at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

in 1956. Hitchens was the son of the artist Alfred Hitchens. His son John Hitchens and grandson Simon Hitchens are both artists.

Exhibitions

* 1925 One-man exhibition, Mayor Gallery, London * 1928 Arthur Tooth & Sons, London * 1929 London Artists' Association, Cooling Galleries, London * 1930 Heal's Mansard Gallery, London * 1933 Alex Reid & Lefevre, London (also 1935 and 1937) * 1934 Participated in Objective Abstractions, Zwemmer Gallery * 1937 Storran Gallery exhibition * 1940 First of ten one-man exhibitions,

Leicester Galleries Leicester Galleries was an art gallery located in London from 1902 to 1977 that held exhibitions of modern British, French and international artists' works. Its name was acquired in 1984 by Peter Nahum, who operates "Peter Nahum at the Leiceste ...

(also in 1942, 1944, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1952, 1954, 1957 and 1959) * 1945 Retrospective exhibition, Temple Newsam House, Leeds * 1947 Friends of Bristol Art Gallery * 1947 Arts Council exhibition

Glastonbury Glastonbury ( , ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than across the River ...

and

Cirencester Cirencester ( , ; see #Pronunciation, below for more variations) is a market town and civil parish in the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire, England. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames. It is the List of ...

* 1948 Retrospective exhibition, Graves Art Gallery,

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

* 1951

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Labour Party cabinet member Herbert Morrison was the prime mover; in 1947 he started with the ...

exhibition Bristol Art Gallery * 1953 Metropolitan Art Gallery, Tokyo * 1956 Gimpel Fils, London * 1956 Represented Britain at the XXVIII Venice Biennale * 1958 Laing Art Galleries, Toronto * 1960 One man exhibition, Waddington Galleries, London (also in 1962, 1964, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1982, 1985, 1990, 1993 and 1996) * 1963 Major retrospective exhibition arranged by the Arts Council, Tate Gallery, London * 1964 Civic Art Gallery, Southampton, University of Southampton Arts Festival * 1966 Tib Lane Gallery, Manchester, Poindexter Gallery, New York; Worthing Art Gallery * 1967 ''Treasures from West Country'' exhibition, Bristol City Art Gallery * 1967 Stone Gallery, Newcastle * 1971 Basil Jacobs Fine Art, London * 1972 Rutland Gallery, London, Landscape into Abstract * 1978 Burstow Gallery, Brighton College * 1978 Retrospective exhibition, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne * 1979 Retrospective exhibition, Royal Academy * 1980 Bohun Gallery, Henley-on-Thames * 1982 New Art Centre, London * 1987 Oriel 31, Welshpool and Newtown, Powys * 1989 Retrospective exhibition, Serpentine Gallery, London * 1991 Cleveland Bridge Gallery, Bath * 1993 Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London * 1993 Pallant House Gallery, Chichester * 1993 Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal * 2000 Jonathan Clark Fine Art, London, A Visual Sound * 2003 Jonathan Clark Fine Art, London, Landscapes * 2005 Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne * 2005 Jonathan Clark Fine Art, Nudes * 2007 Pallant House Gallery, Chichester * 2007 Jonathan Clark Fine Art, London, The Flower Paintings * 2009 Jonathan Clark Fine Art, London, Unseen Paintings from the 1930s * 2019 Garden Museum, London * 2019 'Space Through Colour': Pallant House Gallery, Chichester; then Djanogly Gallery, Lakeside Arts, University of Nottingham Ivon Hitchens Estate - Jonathan Clark Fine Art
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Sources

Art Fact

External links

*
Tate Britain, London
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hitchens, Ivon 1893 births 1979 deaths English male painters People educated at Bedales School Rother Valley artists 20th-century English painters 20th-century English male artists Painters from London Alumni of St John's Wood Art School Alumni of the Royal Academy Schools