Ian Davenport — Four Seasons For Sale

Explore Ian Davenport's Four Seasons, a 2019 series of four etchings — Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter — each made using chine collé on Hahnemühle Bright White wove paper. The prints were published in an edition of 30 by Cristea Roberts Gallery, London, and printed by Thumbprint Editions Ltd.

Each etching translates Davenport's signature technique — pouring liquid paint down a tilted board so it cascades into vertical lines before pooling at the base — into an abstract interpretation of a specific season's character, using colour rather than imagery to suggest the light and mood of each. The etchings have a plate size of 96.4 x 96.4 cm, with a full sheet measuring approximately 115 x 113 cm, giving each work substantial physical presence for a print.

Four Seasons was first exhibited together in Chromatic at Cristea Roberts Gallery in January 2020, an exhibition that explored the roles of experimentation, improvisation, and the accidental in Davenport's process. Chromatic also included Davenport's Diagonals etchings, a related group named for the four phases of daylight — Morning, Midday, Twilight and Evening — in which the poured colour bands run diagonally rather than vertically, offering a useful point of comparison to how differently Davenport can treat the same underlying pouring technique.

Davenport, born in 1966 and based in London, has spent over three decades refining this method of pouring household paint down tilted surfaces, a practice that began with hypodermic syringes used to control the flow of colour and has evolved into a signature vocabulary spanning paintings, etchings, and screenprints. Four Seasons stands as one of the clearest demonstrations of how that single physical process can be tuned, through colour alone, to suggest an entire emotional register — in this case, the turning of the year.