Aquatint on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/norman-ackroyd-625" aria-label="More by Norman Ackroyd" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Norman Ackroyd</a>
Avenue at Avington
Transferred from the Library 1983
architecture
avenue
Avington
England
England, South East
England, Southern
Hampshire
Hooker, Jeremy, ‘Avington: the Avenue at Dawn’
landscape
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
places
townscapes / man-made features
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
wooded
paper print aquatint
The Avenue at Avington
image: 95 × 114 mm
Transferred from the Library 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/ackroyd-the-avenue-at-avington-p08210" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P08210</span></a> <b>The Avenue at Avington</b> 1982
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<br/>From ‘Itchen Water: poems by Jeremy Hooker and etchings by Norman Ackroyd’
<br/>Aquatint 3 3/4 × 4 5/8 (950 × 117) on paper 12 1/2 × 9 3/8 (317 × 239), printed and published by Winchester School of Art Press
<br/>Inscribed ‘Norman Ackroyd 82’ b.r. and ‘The Avenue at Avington’ and ‘59/90’ Transferred from the Library 1983
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<br/><span>P08210</span> was printed to accompany the book Itchen Water which was published in a limited edition as follows: the first fifty copies numbered I to L contained ten initialled original <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/etching" title="Glossary definition for 'Etching'"><span>etchings</span></a> plus six artist's proofs and four presentation copies; one hundred copies numbered 1 to 100 with tipped in reproductions and one initialled original etching. <span>P08210</span> was inserted into copy number 77 and is signed rather than initialled.
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<br/>Itchen Water contains poems by Jeremy Hooker evoking locations in the Winchester area and impressions of natural phenomena. Each poem is accompanied by a reproduction of an etching by Norman Ackroyd. These images are not illustrations of the poems but parallel them. ‘The Avenue at Avington’ appears both as an inserted original etching and as a reproduction facing page 14. It accompanies a poem entitled ‘Avington: the Avenue at Dawn’.
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<br/>Avington is approximately five miles north east of Winchester and has been the subject of several <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> by Ackroyd. The artist has stated, in answer to questions posed by the compiler in February 1986, that <span>P08210</span> is a ‘fairly true representation of this site’ and that he drew on the plate ‘almost entirely’ on location.
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<br/><span>P08210</span> depicts the dark forms of monumental trees rising high above the ground. In an interview in the Fine Art Letter, 6, May 1982, p.17 Ackroyd stated that the impression he receives in this avenue is ‘almost like a cathedral’. He also indicated that
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<p>The trees at Avington were hand planted. They do excite me. I like the idea that the people who planted that avenue knew they would never live to see it in this kind of glory. It's the ultimate in unselfishness ...The people who planted these things for us, because we are seeing them, they have a feeling of timelessness about them.</p>
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<br/>This entry has been approved by the artist.
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Catalogue entry
2004-10-13T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
architecture avenue Avington England England, South East England, Southern Hampshire Hooker, Jeremy, ‘Avington: the Avenue at Dawn’ landscape literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) places townscapes / man-made features UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions wooded