Alvaro Barrington: Grandma's Hands

Grandma's Hands, 2020
Edition of 40 (plus artist and school proofs)
Signed and numbered by the artist
Materials: Lithograph
Dimensions: 76 x 49.5 cm
Print is unframed

‘I grew up with my grandmother. My mother had me as a teenager, and it was very common that a grandmother would raise their grandchildren. My grandma was very beautiful and someone I think about all the time. I made this drawing of my hands drawn as if they were her hands. When I was a kid, I wasn’t very well-behaved, and she used to pray for me. I remember thinking about her praying, and I think her prayers today make me want to be better, do better, make her proud. It’s a drawing to remind me of her prayers and of wanting to make her proud.’ Alvaro Barrington, 2020

Launched in 2018 by The Hepworth Wakefield, School Prints is an ambitious five-year project to engage every primary school child in Wakefield District with contemporary art. Each year, the participating schools are gifted a set of limited-edition prints by leading contemporary artists for display in school and are supported with an in-depth engagement programme led by local artists to encourage creativity across the curriculum.

Nicola Freeman, Director of Engagement & Learning at The Hepworth Wakefield, said: “The prominence and urgency of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 has brought into sharp focus the lack of diversity across the arts and museum sector. As part of a number of initiatives to address this in all areas of our work at The Hepworth Wakefield, we are reshaping our Continuing Professional Development programmes for teachers and all future work with schools to support the teaching of black histories across the curriculum, starting by making this campaign the focus of School Prints 2021. We are delighted that this project is supported by such fantastic artists who have so generously given their time and creativity to help us in this endeavour.”

Alvaro Barrington said: “Education is going through a lot of important questioning about what it needs to proceed and I believe the more voices in the conversation the better everyone will be served.”

School Prints is inspired by a ground-breaking scheme set up in the 1940s where artists, including Henri Matisse, Henry Moore and Pablo Picasso, were commissioned to create prints specifically for schools to allow children to have direct access to high-quality art. Artists who have taken part in The Hepworth Wakefield’s revival of the scheme include Fiona Banner, Sir Peter Blake, Sir Michael Craig-Martin, Martin Creed, Jeremy Deller, Anthea Hamilton, Helen Marten, Haroon Mirza, Laure Prouvost, Linder Sterling, Francis Upritchard, Richard Wentworth and Rose Wylie.

School Prints is supported by Eridge Trust and The Curwen Studios.

Alvaro Barrington (b. 1983 Caracas, Venezuela) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York

Born to Grenadian and Haitian parents and raised between the Caribbean and New York, Barrington’s practice explores interconnected histories of cultural production. Considering himself primarily a painter, Barrington’s multimedia approach to image-making employs burlap, textiles, postcards and clothing, exploring how materials themselves can function as visual tools while referencing their personal, political and commercial histories. Barrington has explored the formal action of sewing to connect with his Grenadian aunts, who themselves were masterful sewers, and as an access point into this otherwise traditionally gendered textile art practice. His intimate compositions focus on single subjects in close-up, including faces, body parts, and tropical vegetation.

Recent solo exhibitions include Garvey: Sex Love Nurturing Famalay, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2019) and Alvaro Barrington, MoMA PS1, New York (2017).

Looking to spread the cost? Pay £60 a month for 10 months with an Own Art interest free loan.

(Price inclusive of VAT)

As is traditional in edition publishing, the price of the edition will increase as it sells out.

For more information call the Editions Team on +44 1924 247388 or email editions@hepworthwakefield.org

The Hepworth Wakefield is a charity, all purchases and donations are vital to support our work.

We aim to dispatch most orders within 3 working days. Due to their fragile nature, artist editions and framed prints may take a little longer to dispatch.

GIFT MEMBERSHIPS: UK £3, Europe £15, Rest of the world £25

MEMBERSHIP & PATRONAGE: Free shipping

Full shipping information can be found on our  Delivery & Returns  page.