This new series marks a radical new direction in the artist’s work. He has discarded the iconic subjects that filled his paintings – hearts, tools and robes – in order to concentrate on the act of painting itself, submerging recognisable forms in brightly coloured gestural abstractions. His new works are large and made up of layers of acrylic and sand; he has scraped the paint’s surface, subtracting and adding material to gradually construct a sculptural materiality. With this series of works, a living celebration of painting, Jim Dine casts a retrospective eye over Palettes, his series of works from the 1960s that used the palette shape, to which he applied drips and mounds of paint.

Titles are drawn from Dine’s poem, The Flowering Sheets (2007), evoking the underlying theme of inspiration that is so central to his work. Considered a pioneer of both the Happenings and Pop art in the 1960s, Jim Dine was quick to strike out on his own very individual path. He looked to the European tradition as expressed by the artists he revered, from Rembrandt to Matisse. Wood, lithography, photography, metal and stone: he has experimented with the whole range of techniques in order to break the rules and push them to their limits. He feels that the tool and process of creation are as important as thefinished work.