Linocut on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/patrick-hayman-1256" aria-label="More by Patrick Hayman" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Patrick Hayman</a>
Birds and Trees
Presented by Warren MacKenzie 1986
abstraction
animals: birds
bird - non-specific
figure
from recognisable sources
landscape
night
times of the day
tree
paper print linocut
7 May 2025 – 4 October 2025
2025-10-04
7 May 2025 – 4 October 2025
2025-10-04
2025-05-07
Penlee House Gallery & Museum (Penzance, UK)
2025-05-07
Birds: The art of Cornwall’s birdlife
Loan-out
Birds and Trees
image: 102 × 151 mm
Presented by Warren MacKenzie 1986
<p><b>Patrick Hayman</b><span> 1915-1988 </span>
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<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hayman-birds-and-trees-p11094" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P11094</span></a> </span><b>Birds and Trees</b><span>
1951 </span>
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<p><span>Linocut 102 x 151 (4 x 6) on Fabriano paper 152 x 215 (6 x 8 1/2); printed and published by the artist</span>
<br/><span>Inscribed ‘Hayman' below image b.l., ‘Birds &amp; Trees' below image b.r. and ‘2nd of 6 prints' on back of mount at centre</span>
<br/><span>Presented by Warren MacKenzie 1986 </span>
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<p><span>Hayman made this <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>print</span></a> and </span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/P11095" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'P11095');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>P11095</span></a><span>
in his studio in St. Ives in the autumn of 1951. Both works were exhibited alongside those of other St. Ives artists in a show entitled ‘Prints Under £1' held at Robin Nance's gallery at The Wharf, St. Ives, in December of that year (see also Alix MacKenzie </span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/P11096" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'P11096');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>P11096</span></a><span>, </span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/P11097" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'P11097');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>P11097</span></a><span>
and </span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/P11098" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'P11098');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>P11098</span></a><span>, Warren MacKenzie </span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/P02942" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'P02942');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>P02942</span></a><span>, </span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/P02943" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'P02943');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>P02943</span></a><span>
and </span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/P02944" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'P02944');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>P02944</span></a><span>
and John Wells </span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="/art/artworks/P77131" onclick="popTateObjects(event, -1, 'P77131');" title="View details of this artwork"><span>P77131</span></a><span>). The annotation ‘10/-' on the back of the mount may refer to the price of the print in 1951. </span>
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<p><span>In a letter to the Tate Gallery dated 23 November 1987 Hayman described the exhibition as ‘essentially a friendly coming together ... an AMUSING IDEA'. In an article entitled ‘St Ives Artists' New Venture' published in the </span><i>St Ives Times</i><span>
(30 Nov. 1951, p.4), however, Bernard Leach claimed that a serious purpose lay behind the show. In turning to 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/m/medium" title="Glossary definition for 'Medium'"><span>medium</span></a> of cheap, easily reproduced prints, the artists in the exhibition, he said, were seeking to bring their art within the reach of the general public in order to bridge the gulf separating <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/modernism" title="Glossary definition for 'Modernism'"><span>modern art</span></a> from popular taste. In fact, most of the prints, including this one and </span><span>P11095</span><span>, did not sell to the public but circulated amongst the contributors. Warren MacKenzie remembers that he acquired both prints from Hayman through trading them with works of his own during or shortly after the exhibition. </span>
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<p><span>Scenes of <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/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscapes</span></a>, inhabited by people or animals, were typical of Hayman's work in this period. Hayman had moved to Cornwall in March 1951, attracted not just by the beauty of the coastline (reminiscent of New Zealand where he had lived from 1936-47) but also by his sense of 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/primitivism" title="Glossary definition for 'Primitivism'"><span>primitive</span></a> and magical qualitites of the land. A <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/gouache" title="Glossary definition for 'Gouache'"><span>gouache</span></a> and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/ink" title="Glossary definition for 'Ink'"><span>ink</span></a> <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>painting</span></a> of the same year entitled ‘View of a Garden at Night' (</span><i>Patrick Hayman: The Visionary and the New Frontier</i><span>, exh. cat., Norman MacKenzie Art Gallery, University of Regina, Saskatchewan 1985, fig. 1) depicts a scene similar to that of this print of large trees under which sits a female figure. Hayman believed that there was ‘a strong, formal &amp; in a sense underlying, similarity in a structural sense' between the two works. However, though there was indeed a garden with tall dark fir trees in front of the house on the coast in which he and his wife shared a flat at this time, Hayman has stated that neither work was drawn directly from nature, rather, ‘the scene was set permanently in ones mind's eye by our surroundings - both EMOTIONAL + VISUAL'. Nonetheless, the purple colour of this print was ‘probably indicative of the OCEANIC NIGHT SKY in that time &amp; place' (letter to the compiler dated 4 December 1987). </span>
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<p><span>Described in simple straight and curved lines, 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/a/abstract-art" title="Glossary definition for 'Abstract art'"><span>abstract</span></a> quality of the image hints at the ‘other wordly' or magical theme that was central to Hayman's subject matter. </span>
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<p><span>This entry has been approved by the artist. </span>
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<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><i>The Tate Gallery 1984-86: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions Including Supplement to Catalogue of Acquisitions 1982-84</i><span>, Tate Gallery, London 1988, p.376</span>
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<p>
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Catalogue entry
2004-09-21T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction animals: birds bird - non-specific figure from recognisable sources landscape night times of the day tree