Rachel Howard (b. 1969)

Once the assistant of Damien Hirst, and the first and, according to Hirst, best person to paint one of his spot paintings, Rachel Howard’s vertical abstract compositions sit on the canvas with a dense substantiality. In 1996’s Untitled, columns of vivid reds, pinks, greens and blues fall down the canvas with an understated forcefulness, the edges of these fields of colour wavering gently in space. Gleaming with the luscious patina of household gloss paint – ‘so gorgeous, it’s almost edible. You want to dive into it’ (R. Howard, ‘Still Inside the Yellow House: A Conversation Between Rachel Howard and Martin Gayford’, Rachel Howard, exh. cat., BlainSouthern, London, 2011, p. 14) – the work recalls past traditions of abstract painting, while maintaining a flawless luminosity of its own. Indeed, Howard’s composition is shaped more by the forces of nature than the painter’s hand itself. Allowing the paint to stand in the can, causing it to separate, Howard applies the bottom layer of pigment before manipulating it around the canvas using the varnish of the top layer; finally, physically turning the canvas, she lets gravity drag the paint to the bottom of the canvas, enveloping the canvas with bands of colour.