Lithograph on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/harry-holland-1302" aria-label="More by Harry Holland" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Harry Holland</a>
Door
Purchased 1983
adults
architecture
bag
clothing and personal items
door
features
natural phenomena
objects
people
shadow
woman
paper print lithograph
Door
image: 195 × 130 mm
Purchased 1983
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/holland-door-p07805" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07805</span></a> <b>Door</b> 1982
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<br/>Lithograph 7 5/8 × 5 1/8 (195 × 130) on paper 15 × 11 1/4 (380 × 285), printed by Nick Hunter and published by Garton &amp; Cooke
<br/>Inscribed ‘W H Holland’ b.r. and ‘4/30’
<br/>Purchased from Robin Garton (Grant-in-Aid) 1983
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<br/>The following entry is based on information supplied by the artist in a letter dated 21 April 1986. It has been approved by him.
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<br/>Doors and social situations involving doors, in which a figure or figures are either standing in or walking through a doorway, are a recurrent theme in Holland's work. Holland has painted variations on this subject in ‘Room’ 1985 (repr. Harry Holland, exhibition catalogue, Artsite Gallery, Bath, August 1985, no.9) and ‘Door’ (repr. Peter Archer Harry Holland Frank McKenna, exhibition catalogue, Midland Group, Nottingham, April–May 1979, no.16). The artist has explained this interest as follows: ‘Doors are flat objects and are therefore capable of asserting or denying the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/picture-plane" title="Glossary definition for 'Picture plane'"><span>picture plane</span></a>. They also have a symbolic significance. These two factors make for a fairly rich meaning/interpretation.’ The figure in <span>P07805</span> was drawn from memory and followed preliminary sketches now in the artist's collection. Although it is Holland's occasional practice to develop an idea from <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> via <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/print" title="Glossary definition for 'Print'"><span>prints</span></a> into <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a>, this particular subject was not painted. Characteristically, the work resists any single literal interpretation. The figure occupies a doorway but it is unclear whether she is pausing in this space or is entering a room. The artist's treatment of detail is suggestive rather than descriptive. The viewer is invited to interact with the work by speculating on the actual appearance and meaning of the girl's facial expression, clothing and accessories for which only brief visual clues are supplied. By limiting literal information and consequently forcing the use of the observer's imagination, Holland is able to amplify the sense of an actual encounter with a real person, as opposed to a model, occupying real space. This is because the viewer, in being tempted to interpret the image, is compelled to draw upon memory which is the repository of his own real experiences.
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<br/><span>P07805</span>, together with <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/holland-lovers-p07806" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07806</span></a> and <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/holland-t-v-p07807" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07807</span></a> are part of a series of twenty <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/lithography" title="Glossary definition for 'Lithography'"><span>lithographs</span></a> which were executed as the result of a commission given to the artist by Robin Garton Gallery in 1980. The series was exhibited there in the exhibition Harry Holland Twenty Lithographs, November–December 1982. The artist has stated that lithography is his preferred printmaking technique because ‘stone lithography can be reworked in a rich variety of ways’. It is particularly suited to Holland's interest in the effects of light as the artist is able to obtain highlights and dissolve hard edges by scratching into the stone after the image has been laid down in lithographic crayon.
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<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><i>The Tate Gallery 1982-84: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions</i>, London 1986
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-13T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults architecture bag clothing and personal items door features natural phenomena objects people shadow woman