Gary Hume has generously produced Bird in a Tree, 2023, a limited edition print on the occasion of his work going on display as part of the major gallery-wide rehang at Tate Britain.

Hume’s work has evolved over time to encompass a range of subjects: figures such as mothers and babies, friends and celebrities from Tony Blackburn to Kate Moss as well as images drawn from nature or childhood including flowers, birds and snowmen. Through this varied set of motifs, Hume explores the full spectrum of emotional response from wonder and joy to melancholy and loss. Conventional ideas of beauty are frequently countered by a darker, more questioning sense of the world and recognisable forms are sometimes fragmented to near abstraction. The subject of Hume’s limited edition, Bird in a Tree, 2023, is suggested by the title yet the image leans towards abstraction and ambiguity. These qualities are captured by the fine and delicate surface texture of the photopolymer etching. Inspired by an old book of botanical illustrations, Hume was looking at the reverse side of a page when he caught a glimpse of light and dark passages, within it was a bird in a tree.