Viewing Room | Undergrowth by Howard Hodgkin

1 - 31 March 2023
  • Howard Hodgkin. Undergrowth, 1998–2003, Oil on wood, 200 x 242,9 cm

    Howard Hodgkin. Undergrowth, 1998–2003

    Oil on wood, 200 x 242,9 cm

  • "I am a representational painter but not a painter of appearances. I paint representational pictures of emotional situations."

    – Howard Hodgkin

     

    Howard Hodgkin (1932–2017) is widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest painters and has occupied a central place in contemporary art for over half a century.

     

    The work of Howard Hodgkin linked gesture and color by pushing the boundaries of painting, often literally – through strokes that went beyond the edges of the frame. Embracing time as a compositional element, his work is a testament to his immersion in the intangibility of feelings, and his seemingly spontaneous, dramatic brushstrokes provide an exploration into the expressive nature of paint itself.

  • The "Undergrowth" (1998–2003) comes at a time when Howard Hodgkin created the largest works in his significant body of art, introducing a new note to his subjects. The work features a vibrant composition of gestural brushstrokes and richly layered textures, depicting a tangled forest undergrowth. The colors blend and bleed into each other, creating a sense of movement and dynamism. Painted frames enhance the suggestive effect of his pulsating colours.
  • Hodgkin was born in London and during World War II the family moved to Long Island, New York. During three...
    © Rebecca Reid/Eyevine

    Hodgkin was born in London and during World War II the family moved to Long Island, New York. During three years he spent there he first saw works by such artists as Henri Matisse, Édouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard and Pablo Picasso. His visits to New York museums reinforced an early ambition to become a painter. Being back in England Hodgkin attended Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts (1949–50) and Bath Academy of Art, Corsham (1950–54).

     

    In 1962, at the age of 30, Hodgkin had his first solo exhibition at Arthur Tooth and Sons gallery in London. He began to gain notoriety in the 1980s, representing Britain at the XLI Biennale di Venezia in 1984 launched him internationally and receiving the Turner prize in 1985 confirmed his status of one of the most outstanding names in contemporary British art. 

     

    In 1976 Howard Hodgkin was appointed a CBE, he was knighted in 1992, awarded the Shakespeare Prize by Alfred Toepfer Foundation (Hamburg) in 1997, made a Companion of Honour in 2003 and in 2014 became the first artist to be given the Swarovski Whitechapel Gallery Art Icon award.

  • Howard Hodgkin's paintings and prints have been the subject of major exhibitions all over the world. His first retrospective was curated by Nicholas Serota at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, in 1976. In 1995 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, presented a major retrospective which toured to Europe.
  • Always remaining independent, Howard Hodgkin never belonged to any school or group. In 1950s–1960s, at the earliest stage of his...
    Howard Hodgkin: Painting India at The Hepworth Wakefield, 2017
    Photo by Stuart Whipps

    Always remaining independent, Howard Hodgkin never belonged to any school or group. In 1950s–1960s, at the earliest stage of his art path, the artist established subjects he’d work with throughout his career, such as personal stories, particular locations, and acts of nature. Artist's colour composition always evoked memories of places and encounters and the sentiments associated with them. The use of colour in his early representational paintings was clearly inspired by the works of such artists as Max Beckmann and Emil Nolde. By the 1960s he already made a name for himself. By the 1970s he’d developed an abstract style with only a hint at representation in which his self-assertive expressionism was refined by a lyricism. Back in the 1970s Hodgkin discovered a way to enhance his works’ exuberant energy. He abandons canvas for a framed wooden panel which he used as a surface entirely. If in the 1980s there are often recognizable “things” in his works — human figures, flowers, landscapes, boats, buildings – by the 1990s he was working mostly in monochromatic swipes and admitted that he restricted himself to only a few kinds of marks.

  • In addition to his work as a painter, printmaker, set and costume designer, Hodgkin was an avid collector. The undeniable and key source of inspiration in the artist's oeuvre was his love for India, a country he first visited in 1964 and returned to almost every year of his adult life, and his fascination for traditional Indian art: Indian paintings and drawings have been his lifelong passion. Howard Hodgkin’s collection of art comprised over 120 works, including Mughal Art, that are recognized as some of the finest examples of Indian art made between 1550 and 1850. In many of his paintings and drawings Hodgkin transcended his explosive celebrations of the country he loved and forged a new narrative, reminiscing over his thoughts, experiences and memories. 

     

    "I fell in love with Indian art when I was at school, thanks to the enterprising art master, Wilfrid Blunt. I longed to visit India, but only managed to do so in my early thirties. It proved a revelation. It changed my way of thinking and, probably, the way I paint."

    — Howard Hodgkin

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