HOWARD HODGKIN | Back cloth design for Sāvitri

Aldeburgh, Peter Pears Gallery, Howard Hodgkin Stage Designs, 8th - 23rd June 2002, un-numbered exhibition.

The card is stable. There are a small number of very light scuffs to the surface towards the edges. There aresome very fine lines of craquelure in the yellow pigment in the centre of the left hand circular form, only visible upon extremely close inspection. There is some texture to the paint surface along the lower edge due to the drying of the goauche, in keeping with the Artist's materials. There is some evidence of studio matter throughout. This excepting the work appears to be in excellent overall condition. The work is held within a simple wooden frame. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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Sāvitri is a short chamber opera in one act with music composed by Gustav Holst. The story is loosely based on the episode of Sāvitri and Satyavan from the Sanskrit epic poems of Mahābhārata, in which Sāvitri, the wife of a woodman, attempts to rescue her husband from death. The extreme simplicity of both narrative and orchestration is reflected in Hodgkin’s striking design, which evokes a mystical combat between life and death. Sāvitri was first performed at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC on 21st May 1999.