Highgate Ponds

London Underground commissioned this poster in 1989 as part of 'Art on the Underground'. The campaign was launched in 1986 to encourage an artistic rather than a commercial approach to poster design. The striking design by Howard Hodgkin was the first in the series to take the image right to the borders. Similarly Hodgkin often painted over the frame of his pictures. Hodgkin's bold compositions are never quite abstract. He created identifiable textures and used representational colour to construct what he described as 'representational pictures of emotional situations'. In this painting, which promotes Highgate Ponds, hints of the water's surface, lilly pads, blue skies and even a Union Jack, convey a nostalgic memory of the British outdoors.