Howard Hodgkin: Memories

Paintings 1978-1999

 

Curated by Paul Moorhouse

 

1 October - 11 December 2020
Monday - Friday 10am - 6pm

(No booking required)

 

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Please scroll down for curator’s introduction and installation shots

 

Howard Hodgkin: Memories

 

This exhibition is devoted to the art of Howard Hodgkin (1932-2017), who is widely regarded as one of the leading British painters of the last fifty years. Described by the eminent art critic Robert Hughes as ‘a colourist unsurpassed among living painters’, during a seventy-year career Hodgkin forged a deeply personal visual language in which colour, brushwork and mark-making evoke memories and their associated emotions.  Bringing together nineteen of the artist’s most distinctive paintings, Howard Hodgkin: Memories focuses on the 1980s and 1990s, two decades during which Hodgkin’s art attained the stylistic maturity and expressive vitality that secured international recognition.

 

During this ‘classic’ phase in Hodgkin’s development, he received a succession of important honours.  In 1984, he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale; the following year he won the Turner Prize; and in 1992 he was knighted.  This recognition followed a period of several years during which Hodgkin had searched with difficulty for an effective way of working.  ‘I had terrible trouble finding a way of painting’, he recalled. ‘To some extent I found my voice early and knew what I wanted to do. But knowing how to do it took longer.’ 

 

The exhibition illuminates the way forward that Hodgkin eventually found, and the wide-ranging nature of his subject matter, which he described as ‘views through windows, landscapes, even occasionally a still-life, to memories of holidays, encounters with interiors and art collections, other people, other bodies, love affairs, sexual encounters and emotional situations of all kinds, even including eating’.  These subjects provided the context for the ‘emotional situations’ that Hodgkin recalled in paintings of compelling expressive presence.

 

 

Paul Moorhouse

Middle Gallery (clockwise): Old sky (1996-97), Clean Sheets (1982-84) and View from Venice (1984-85)
Back Gallery (clockwise): Going to America (1999), After Degas (1993) and Storm (1996-97)
Clockwise : In the Middle of the Night (1996), Italian Landscape (1990-91) and In Tangier (1987-90)
Clockwise: Going to America (1999), Old Sky (1996-97) and Clean Sheets (1982-84)
Front Gallery (clockwise) : After Visiting David Hockney (1991-92), Leaves (1987-88) and A Pyramid for Antony (1986-88)
Front Gallery (clockwise) : It Can"t Be True (1987-90), Small Indian Sky (1990) and Menswear (1980-85)
Front Gallery (clockwise) : It Can't Be True (1987-90), Menswear (1980-85), The Spectator (1984-87), After Visiting David Hockney (1991-92) and Leaves (1987-88)
Front Gallery (clockwise) : It Can't Be true (1987-90), Menswear (1980-85), The Spectator (1984-87) and After Visiting David Hockney (1991-92)
Front Gallery (clockwise) : The Spectator (1984-87), After Visiting David Hockney (1991-92), Leaves (1987-88) and Venice Sunset (1989)
Front Gallery (clockwise) : Learning About Russian Music (1999), It Can't Be True (1987-90) and Menswear (1980-85)
Back Gallery (clockwise) : Going to America (1999), After Degas (1993), Storm (1996-97) and View from Venice (1984-85)
Archival room