Howard Hodgkin 1932, London, UK-2017, London, UK

Born in London in 1932, Hodgkin spent part of his childhood on Long Island, New York, during World War II. There he first encountered the work of Henri Matisse, Édouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard, and Pablo Picasso — artists whose treatment of color and emotion profoundly shaped his early sensibility. After returning to England, he studied at the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts (1949–50) and the Bath Academy of Art in Corsham (1950–54).

Independent throughout his career, Hodgkin never aligned himself with any school or movement. By the late 1950s, he had established the key subjects that would remain central to his art — personal memories, specific places, and moments of human connection. His work translated recollection into color, form, and rhythm, evoking the emotional resonance of lived experience. The vivid palette and painterly energy of his early representational works reveal the influence of Max Beckmann and Emil Nolde. His lifelong engagement with India — a country he visited regularly throughout his life — is reflected in his luminous palette and rhythmic compositions, and remains one of the most distinctive aspects of his legacy.

In 1962, at the age of thirty, Hodgkin held his first solo exhibition at Arthur Tooth and Sons in London. His first retrospective, curated by Nicholas Serota, was presented at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, in 1976. The 1980s brought him international recognition: representing Britain at the 41st Venice Biennale in 1984 and winning the Turner Prize in 1985 established his reputation as one of the leading figures in contemporary British painting.