Maggi Hambling: Touch

One of Britain#&39;s foremost figurative artists, Maggi Hambling is celebrated for her portrait paintings and controversial sculptures. Less familiar, however, are her lively drawings and sensuous Monotype prints. This book is the first to focus specifically on the range and power of Maggi Hambling#&39;s more intimate works on paper, and is published to accompany a related exhibition opening at the British Museum in September 2016. For Maggi Hambling, drawing has always formed the central core of her work. Through the act of mark-making she reveals the elusive qualities of her subjects, saying, "Drawing is an artist#&39;s most direct and intimate response to the world. The touch of charcoal, graphite or ink on paper is full of endless possibilities. I try to distill the essence of a subject and capture the life-force of a moment. The challenge is to touch the subject with all the desire of a lover." Maggi Hambling: Touch traces the artist#&39;s engagement with drawing throughout her career and includes, alongside her own works, reproductions of drawings by those artists whom she admires and has closely examined on visits to the British Museum Prints and Drawings Study Room over many years - Constable, Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Michelangelo.

Jennifer Ramkalawon is Curator of Western Modern and Contemporary Graphic Art at the British Museum.