Howard Hodgkins

Sir Gordon Howard Eliot Hodgkin was born on the 6th August 1932, he is a British painter and printmaker. His work is most often associated with abstraction.  Hodgkin's paintings relate to specific experiences and the process of painting is an act of recollection in the course of which he seeks equivalents in colour and form for his memories and impressions of the scene. He has described this process to the critic David Sylvester: 'My pictures are finished when the subject comes back.




Early work

Hodgkin's first solo show was in London in 1962. His early paintings tend to be made up of hard-edged curved forms in a limited number of colours.

Mature work

Around the beginning of the 1970s, Hodgkin's style became more spontaneous, with vaguely recognisable shapes presented in bright colours and bold forms. His works may then be called "semi-abstract", and are often compared to the paintings of Henri Matisse.
In 1984, Hodgkin represented Britain at the Venice Biennale, in 1985 he won the Turner Prize, and in 1992 he was knighted.
In 1995, Hodgkin printed the Venetian Views series, which depict the same view of Venice at four different times of day. Venice, Afternoon - one of the four prints - uses sixteen sheets, or fragments, in a hugely complex printing process which creates a colourful, painterly effect. This piece was given to the Yale Centre of British Art in June 2006 by the Israel family to complement their already-impressive collection of Hodgkins.
In 2003 he was appointed by Queen Elizabeth II as a Companion of Honour. A major exhibition of his work was mounted at Tate Britain, London, in 2006. Also in 2006, The Independent declared him one of the 100 most influential gay people in Britain, as his work helps many people express their emotions to others
In September, 2010 Hodgkin and five other British artists including John Hoyland, John Walker, Ian Stephenson, Patrick Caulfield and R.B. Kitaj were included in an exhibition entitled The Independent Eye: Contemporary British Art From the Collection of Samuel and Gabrielle Lurie, at the Yale Center for British Art.

Style

Hodgkin's paintings often seek to convey memories of encounters with friends and frequently carry titles alluding to specific places and events such as Dinner at West Hill (1966) and Goodbye to the Bay of Naples (1980–82). Hodgkin himself has said that he paints "representational pictures of emotional situations," a statement that fixes him firmly as an advocate of the expressionist movement. Hodgkin's appeal to representationalism prevents his categorization as an abstract expressionist - although some artists within that movement do execute representational paintings. As a formidable expressionist, Hodgkin occupies a lonely space somewhere between the incandescent impressions of Turner; the powerful emotional explosiveness of Van Gogh and the colder abstractions of Pollock, De Kooning and the late canvases of Kline.
Despite their apparent spontaneity and usually small scale, many of Hodgkin's paintings take years to complete, with the artist returning to a work after a wait and then changing it or adding to it. He often paints over the frames of his pictures, emphasising the idea of the painting as an object. Several of his works are on wooden items, such as bread-boards or the tops of old tables, rather than canvas. A number of his works not shown in frames are surrounded by rectangles of simple colour.
His prints are hand-painted etchings and he has worked with the same master printer (Jack Shirreff at 107 Workshop) and print publisher (Alan Cristea Gallery) for the last 25 years.


His Work

Rain

Display caption

Although seemingly abstract, Hodgkin's paintings are rooted in everyday reality. He has stated;I start out with the subject and naturally. 'I have to remember first of all what it looked like, but it would also perhaps contain a great deal of feeling and sentiment. All of that has got to be somehow transmuted, transformed or made, into a physical object; Rain is one of his largest paintings, and suggests a landscape viewed through a window, with lowering storm clouds and squalls shafting down.

Information

Date - 1984-9

Medium - Oil on wood

Dimensionssupport: 1640 x 1795 x 51 mm

Collection - Tate

Acquisition Purchased in 1990

Reference - T05771

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hodgkin-rain-t05771

First Impression

When I first observed the painting, I was confused as to why Hodgkins titles the painting "Rain", in my opinion, the only colours that connote rain has to be the blue and the grey. However after a bit of thought, I came to the conclusion that Hodgkins could possibly be paint the outcome of his senses when it rains. For example, what he feels and what he hears.

Ideas About 'Rain'

After a bit of thought, I think that Hodgkin created a very simplistic piece that created universal thoughts. According to the Display caption, his work is the view point of a window. I feel that his work is distorted to reflect the visual images when you look through water. For example, when you look at your relfection in a pond, it is somewhat distorted as apose to looking in a clear mirror. The colours he uses have a contrast that may trigger different emotions. I think that Hodgkins had a very sound understanding of what various colours do to people, what it makes them feel and how they behave towards it. The slap of the colour blue, nearer the middle of the painting, caught my eye immediately, so because of this, I felt it was very significant to the meaning. 
Personally, I really like his work because it makes the viewer feel something, from dislike towards it or passion, Hodgkin successful triggered emotions. This is something I may use in my future work.

Links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Hodgkin

http://www.howard-hodgkin.com/

http://www.howard-hodgkin.com/paintings

http://www.modernartoxford.org.uk/whats-on/time-and-place/about/

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/howard-hodgkin-1295