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Man on a Couch

© the artist. Image credit: Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre, London

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Notes

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This work was painted during the artist’s final year as a student at Camberwell College of Art in London in the mid-1970s, and was originally intended as the basis for an etching. Made during a period the artist refers to as his ‘coming out’, it is one of a number of works in which Hall reflects on his sexuality. The work shows the artist’s first homosexual lover returning his gaze and tenderly beckoning to him to join him on the couch, and share his ‘happiness and security’, although it in fact relates more closely to the ending of the relationship. The tenderness, as well as the intentionally sexual tone, however, are countered by the artist’s recollections of feeling ‘unaccepted and not knowing how to resolve the conflicts within.

Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre

London

Title

Man on a Couch

Date

1976

Medium

ink & emulsion on etching plate on board

Measurements

H 29.3 x W 42.2 cm

Accession number

AC 3050

Acquisition method

purchased from the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 1980

Work type

Painting

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Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre

Belvedere Road, London, Greater London SE1 8XX England

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