HOWARD HODGKIN | The Way We Live Now (Final Version)

London, Hayward Gallery, The Way We Live Now, 1992, with tour, catalogue untraced.

The sheet is adhered to the backing board with tabs of adhesive tape at all four corners and at intervals along the extreme upper and lower edges. The lower edge has been cut, in keeping with the Artist's working methods. There is an extremely faint horizontal crease to the upper right corner, only visible upon close inspection. The sheet undulates very slightly, in keeping with the Artist's materials. There are one or two accretions to the surface of the sheet and one or two instances of the studio matter in the paint. Subject to the above, the work appears in excellent overall condition. The works is float mounted and held behind glass in a 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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The Way We Live Now is a short story by Susan Sontag which was published to great critical acclaim on 24th November 1986 in The New Yorker. The story describes the beginnings of the AIDS crisis in the early 1980s, as the disease began to claim members of the New York cultural elite.  The narrative is told entirely in the form of fragments of conversation, mentioned and whispered by numerous friends of an unnamed man who lies sick in a hospital bed. Although AIDS was new to many who read the story when it first appeared, The Way We Live Now remains a signature work in the literature of the epidemic. Hodgkin was good friends with the author and designed the book cover, along with a series of five hand-coloured engravings to accompany the text. Karsten Schubert printed a limited edition of this collaboration with all royalties  being given to AIDS charities in the United Kingdom and the United States.  Jonathan Cape in London then printed a fasimile commercial edition in 1992.