In the Design House, John Hubbard, Atlas Landscape,1972
John Hubbard
Atlas Landscape
1972
Oil on canvas
190.5 x 182.9 cm
75 x 72 in
For John Hubbard, (1931-2017) nature was a constant source of inspiration. An avid gardener from youth, his paintings translated the colour and depth of the world around him into intense, abstract landscapes. The style of Hubbard’s paintings is referenced as part of the Abstract Expressionist movement started in the 1940-50s by American painters. Spontaneity, gesture and definitive mark making often characterise this style of painting. The term landscape painting suggests the traditional notion of a distanced view of a particular space, with the viewer witnessing from a far. Yet in Hubbard’s landscapes the viewer is immersed into the painting and subsequently into the subject: nature’s phenomena.
The painting's title, Atlas Landscape, references the Atlas Mountains, which were central to Hubbard’s work in the early seventies. The large canvas is demonstrative of the vast scale of the landscape, and the small, meticulous mark-making in oil paint creates an arresting image void of a focal point, so that our eyes ceaselessly travel through the image. The palette reflects the lush vegetation in the depth of the valleys, met by the shadowing oranges, purples and browns of the mountains, merged into one climactic image. What with the title's simultaneous reference to the Greek god Atlas, and the overpowering presence of the painting, it is as though Hubbard has placed the weight of the world onto his canvas.
John Hubbard was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut (USA) and educated at Harvard University. Having completed military service in Japan, from 1956-58 he studied at the Art Students League in New York and with Hans Hofmann in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Hubbard lived in Rome for two years before settling in Dorset in 1961, the year in which he also had his first exhibition with the New Art Centre. Since then, his work has been displayed in over 15 exhibitions here, most recently in Place, an exhibition featuring John Hubbard, Hubert Dalwood, Ian Stephenson and Edmund de Waal in 2025.
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