ART PREVIEW:Howard Hodgkin-In The Pink
Howard Hodgkin’S work comes directly out of the French tradition known as Intimism, which coincides with the rise of middle class life as the cultural norm and runs (roughly) from Chardin in the 18th Century to Bonnard, Vuillard and Matisse in the early 20th. It assumes that the ordinary, day to day relationships of an artist’s domestic life are deeply interesting as a subject for painting.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Gagosian Gallery
Howard Hodgkin in “In the Pink”, his first exhibition in Hong Kong, presents at Gagosian Gallery recent paintings. The work had been created between 2014 and 2016, each painting creates a pocket of time and silence, demonstrating afresh the expressiveness, candor, and mastery of a painter in his prime.With paint strokes of varying depth and vigor, his works convey fleeting private moments and intense recollections, “Now” (2015-16) embodies an interchange between light and dark, time and feeling, while “Always Afternoon” (2016) transforms a temporal memory into an experience of pure and exuberant color. The layered greens and yellows of “Don’t Tell a Soul” (2016) elide the weight of hours with an emotional jolt. Howard Hodgkin began exhibiting in the ‘60s, mainly portraits and domestic interiors focussing on specific events. Even at this early stage his interest in reconciling Figuration and Abstraction, and in representing events and memories with painterly symbols. It was during this period that Hodgkin also made the first of many visits to India. These visits also saw the beginning of a passionate interest in collecting Indian paintings and drawings, and aspects of classical Indian painting, such as its bold colouration and its intimate settings – are seen by some commentators as influencing Hodgkin’s own style. In the ‘70s, the various elements with which Hodgkin had been experimenting came together in a more complete way. His interest in creating zones of space within a painting and using this not just to suggest depth and texture, but also to direct the viewer through the picture and any suggested narrative, became more evident. As in so many of Hodgkin’s images, at the core of this and other works from this period is a recollection of something the artist experienced in a particular setting. The now famous Hodgkin trademark of painting on the picture frame, and making it an integral part of the work, also began to appear about this time. Hodgkin work underwent a further transition in the ‘80s, with his technique becoming looser and more gestural. In many of the works from this period, heated emotional subjects permeate his pictures. Figures and props disappear, as raw emotional states are depicted in pure color. Visits to exotic locations continued, especially to India, Africa and the Mediterranean. In the ‘90s Hodgkin began experimenting with larger formats, which allowed him to use even bolder and more expressive brush strokes, and more open spaces. This development continued into the new millennium and was at an exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery in New York in 2003. Hodgkin’s compositions are distinctive for the ways in which abstraction and representation, narrative and pure sensation, past and present are brought into urgent relation. Intimate, thoughtful, and insightful, his paintings suggest great arcs of time and thought.
Info: Gagosian Gallery, 7/F Pedder Building, 12 Pedder Street, Central, Hong Kong, Duration: 19/1-11/3/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.gagosian.com
