Tom Phillips The Autumn Arrested, 2007

Bringing together his lifelong interests in games, systems, and chance, and in transforming found material, within the print 'The Autumn Arrested,' Tom Phillips RA CBE (1937-2022) returned to the Sudoku grid, replacing its nine numbers with nine colours of autumnal leaves. 

Inspired by Autumn 2006 with his Princeton study "submerged in dying foliage" that Phillips collected from the university's Einstein Drive, each square is a mosaic of tiny cut leaf fragments, their veins still visible, ranging from crimson, aubergine and rose to ochre, gold, olive and russet. The stencilled lettering around the border wordplays on "fall" and "arrested", with the season's decline suspended within the grid's strict logic. 

Phillips dedicated the work to three places: Princeton, where he was a regular Director's Visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study from 2005-2011; Peckham, his home and studio for most of his life; and Perivale, where he made these prints with master printmaker Brad Faine.