In-conversation
between Howard Hodgkin and Enrique Juncosa, Director
of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Tuesday 21 February,
2006, IMMA.
© IMMA and
artist
Transcript of the Interview:
Text by Karen Sweeney, © Irish Musuem of Modern
Art and the author
Published on the occasion of the exhibition
Howard Hodgkin at the Irish Museum of Modern Art
22 February – 7 May 2006
Howard Hodgkin
Irish Museum of Modern Art
22 February – 7 May 2006
Howard Hodgkin
Howard Hodgkin (born 1932, London) has developed an
unmistakable body of works, establishing him as one
of the foremost international artists of his generation.
Although primarily a painter, he has also made prints,
designed furniture, costumes and sets, and is an avid
collector of Indian paintings, including Mughal and
Rajput miniatures, which he began collecting while a
pupil at Eton during the mid 1940s. This exhibition
at IMMA brings together more than fifty significant
paintings from the late 1950s to the present, and is
the third retrospective exhibition of his work to date.
This is not the first occasion he has exhibited a body
of work in Dublin: the exhibition Howard Hodgkin: Small
Paintings,1 toured to the Douglas Hyde Gallery in 1991.
Considering these works collectively, one begins to
understand the coherence of his practice over almost
five decades. This exhibition offers new insights into
the development of Hodgkin’s work and traces the
expansion of his distinctive visual vocabulary, from
early portraits and interiors, to the gradual loosening
of the paint surface in recent years. These paintings
resist classification, with each existing as a self-contained
world and as Hodgkin asserts ‘I paint representational
pictures of emotional situations’.2 Ultimately,
the images encapsulate defining moments in his existence,
a fusion of events he recalls, encounters between people
and places he has known, experienced in a tangible emotional
relationship with his subject, while avoiding the literal.
In order to appreciate the full extent of Hodgkin’s
oeuvre, it is important to examine the development of
his work from early to recent paintings, and the works
in this exhibition are hung in a more or less chronological
way. The earliest painting in the exhibition, 114 Sinclair
Road, 1957-8, refers to his former west London address,
and depicts, amongst other figures, a female reclining
on a sofa in odalisque fashion. While more inhibited
than paintings of the later period, this work heralds
many of his later concerns, such as the psychology of
space and an intimacy that verges on voyeurism evocative
of the enduring legacy of Sickert, Vuillard and Bonnard,
artists whose work he admires.
Hodgkin began exhibiting in the early 1960s and during
this period his primary focus was on husband and wife
portraits of his friends, gardens and domestic interiors
focusing on specific events. He affirms, ‘My pictures
are narrative paintings which describe specific moments
and very definite people, in relationship to each other
and also to me’, and follows by saying, ‘After
that moment has occurred all the problems are pictorial’3.
In many portraits of this time, the subject’s
name becomes the title of the work, as in the portrait
Brigid Segrave, 1961-2. As with all his works, Hodgkin
was guided by the original experience and his memories
of it when creating this painting. Possibly this painting
depicts a figure holding a mirror in which the figure’s
partially reflected image appears, adding a dimension
of warmth that infuses the entire painting, while calling
to mind Vermeer’s or Matisse’s fondness
for including reflections and mirrors within their imagery.
This work succeeds both as a representational image
and as an abstract motif, evident in the objects silhouetted
against the vibrant red backdrop, which highlight the
geometric harmonies within the work.
Hodgkin frequently blurs the boundaries between figuration
and imagery verging on the point of abstraction in his
paintings. This is already apparent in his humorous
portrait of the British artist Robyn Denny and his wife
Anna, Mr. and Mrs. Robyn Denny, 1960. The composition
is complex, with geometric simplifications evident in
the reduction of background and foreground to a flat
pattern, using both as elements in a rigorous pattern.
The inherent tension stems from the need to reconcile
what we perceive with the need for design and structure
within the work. Similarly, in the portrait of his art
collector friends Mr. and Mrs. E.J.P., 1969-73, the
green egg-shape in the foreground forms a hybrid between
light-hearted parody of a sculpture by Brancusi in the
couple’s art collection, and a formal compositional
device within the painting.
During the 1970s, the various elements with which he
had been experimenting were resolved in a more absolute
sense. Hodgkin introduced the painted border for the
first time in R.B.K., 1969-70, a portrait of the artist
R.B. Kitaj. The border draws attention to the flatness
and refinement of texture inherent in the work, while
at the same time shifting the focus to the frame. This
work also signals his first move from canvas surface
to wooden panels, which he favours because, as he says,
it ‘doesn’t answer back in the way canvas
does. Canvas loses its life very easily’. Framing
devices form part of his visual signature and he carefully
selects suitable old frames to fit his purpose. Often
it is the first element painted, thereby lending definition
to the picture plane and establishing the surface. Hodgkin
has suggested that the more fleeting the emotion contained
within his works, the thicker the panel, the heavier
the framing used.
After Corot, 1979-82, sparely painted in Corot’s
style, is one of his most elaborate uses of framing.
The expressive handling of sharply receding perspective
epitomizes the manipulation of spatial effects in this
work. By constructing a short distance point, the image
and frame become mutable to such an extent that the
viewer experiences both background and foreground simultaneously.
This intensifies drama and acts as a focus for the mutinous
way paint spills over on to the frame, defying the boundaries
of the surface. Hodgkin further compresses the space
through his handling of the foreground, where the paint
flows orthogonally to the central upright pillars, producing
a sense of theatrical depth, while also appearing as
if the viewer is watching the scene through a window,
reminiscent of the French tradition of Intimism4. His
interest in the architectonics of space is apparent
in his onetime ambition to become ‘a classical
artist…where all emotion, all feeling, turns
into a beautifully articulated anonymous architectural
memorial at the other end’.5
Many works of this period pay homage to artist friends,
while others refer to art in a less direct manner, such
as Talking about Art, 1975, a work in which an array
of shapes and techniques are employed to suggest the
often-illusory subject of discussing art. The overall
feel of the work is dense and animated. Several works
contain direct references to his memories of works of
historical or modern artists, such as Cafeteria at the
Grand Palais, 1975, which commemorates a lunch with
Louis Hodgkin while visiting the exhibition ‘Le
Centenaire de l’Impressionisme’, and refers
to its Impressionist works. In a French Restaurant,
1977-9, is a redress of David Hockney’s depiction
of the Louvre’s interior in Contre-jour in the
French style.
Despite seeming innocent, the imagery is periodically
erotic, at times sexually overt. This is a recurring
theme that becomes particularly apparent in works from
the 1980s onwards. Hodgkin plays up the tension
between content and subject in Lovers, 1984-92, in a
compact composition in which the aura surrounding the
entwined figurative elements creates the dynamic impact
of the scene and becomes the focus around which the
private world of this painting revolves, and to which
the viewer’s gaze is directed. Although near abstract,
a palpable sense of humanity, and more specifically
of bodily pleasures is also apparent in Clean Sheets,
1979-84, which alludes to a human presence that is not
actually present. Whether or not this work alludes to
intimacy or eroticism, one can discern a sexual energy.
These works remain enigmatic, and ultimately Hodgkin
leaves it up to the viewer to explore the probable narratives
of his work.
Other titles prove more exact, such as In the Bay of
Naples, 1980-82. Initially this work appears to be an
abstract collection of interconnecting azure curves,
creamy stripes, bold dots and dashes. However, on closer
examination, it could equally call to mind a coastal
path, island, or beach viewed from the vantage point
of a cliff terrace. The title enables Hodgkin to create
a semi-autobiographical account that hints at his stimulus,
while at the same time allowing the audience a ‘way
in’ to the work.
For Hodgkin, there are enormous differences when working
on different scales. Working on an intimate scale allows
him a greater freedom with surface. He maintains that
‘a small picture can be seen whole, like a window
or a hole in the wall: but when you paint a picture
that’s larger than can be seen at one look, it’s
much harder to control what you’re doing. The
difficulty is to keep the surface sufficiently alive,
without losing the overall coherence’. In Antony’s
Blue Palm, 2002, the power of the imagery is greatly
heightened by the smallness of the surface area, and
this work signifies a distinctive transformation from
suggestion to illusionism.
In the 1990s Hodgkin began to experiment with larger
formats, and this exploration continues up to the present.
He works out large paintings in his head before starting
the painting process. The heroic scale allows for greater
looseness and simplicity alongside a less restricted
partition between elements such as the frame and mark-making.
The comparatively monumental scale of Rhode Island,
2000-2, with its draping contours, lends a sense of
comfort and warmth and envelops the view in its autumnal
landscape. Undertones of War, 2001-3, shares its russet
and broody gunmetal grey tones, reminiscent of Goya,
Turner or Constable; however, the puncture marks in
its worn frame heighten its darker mood. This work possesses
vigour and bravura, executed in a compelling surge of
passionate mark-making and strength of feeling. The
human -scale work, Come into the Garden Maud, 2000-3,
is teeming with lyricism and linguistic allusions, evident
in the pattern of splodges which are redolent of the
‘garden of roses and lilies fair’ of Tennyson’s
poem ‘Maud; a Monodrama’. On the other hand,
another sizeable work, Snapshot, 1984-93, possesses
a quality more closely associated with pictures of a
smaller scale. By selectively inserting shadows to introduce
an air of reality while playing down the transitory
nature of the moment, Hodgkin heightens the temporal
quality of light in this painting. The title suggests
the theatrical inclination also present in his use of
framing devices and evokes literary-vignettes in his
concise depiction of what appears to be fleeting sequential
moments. The framing device in Memories of Max, 1991-95,
represents pathos, appropriate for a work that is an
elegy for the artist’s friend, the architect Max
Gordon, who died in 1990. This picture succeeds on an
emotive level beyond the scope of words, and in this
way, Hodgkin is a painterly lyricist.
Hodgkin has made numerous visits to India6 which have
influenced the brilliance of his colours. He finds an
alternative world in Indian and Islamic art and claims
his main reason for revisiting India is ‘because
it is somewhere else’ 7. His fascination with
the country is apparent in Bombay Sunset, 1972-3; In
the Studio of Jamini Roy, 1976-9, which he completed
following a visit to the prominent Indian painter’s
studio; and Foy Nissen’s Bombay, 1975-7, which
relates to the view from the apartment of a friend from
the British Council in Bombay. He continually visits
Venice and France, as well as exotic locations in especially
Africa and the Mediterranean, using his recollections
as source material for his work. Red Bermudas, 1978-80,
refers to an article of clothing that becomes a symbol
with personal connotations. The work depicts a sunbather
in Central Park, New York, but the title calls to mind
recollections of days spent in hazy sunshine in a distant
location, surrounded by beaches and lush flora, or perhaps,
more specifically, memories of good times spent with
someone special.
The paintings are slow in development, with many emerging
over a number of years. Hodgkin relies on his original
experience of a subject rather than committing his ideas
to paper in preparatory sketches or photography. It
is his mind and spirit, with all their memories and
ideals that inform his eye in the physical act of painting,
which for him involves a high level of concentration.
He is an artist who sees both passionately and completely.
He affirms that in order for his work to be complete
‘the subject and object must become one thing’
and this process can take a matter of years. As he asserts,
the ‘pictures are finished when the subject comes
back.’8 Rather than continuously labouring over
a single work over an extended timeframe, he progresses
several pieces over the same period, covering other
unfinished works with plain canvas screens, thereby
exposing only the painting on which he is currently
working. Caspar David Friedrich’s exploration
of time and the past is evident in several works. It
is also possible to glimpse parallels with Proust’s9
preoccupation with time, memory and absence in the works,
however Hodgkin professes he has not studied Proust’s
work. Like Proust, Hodgkin extracts personal experiences
of the momentous from the momentary, and makes tangible
in his imagery the things, people, ideas and feelings
that may otherwise be lost in a transient world. These
leitmotifs include mementos of special events, annotations,
references to climatic conditions and commemorations
to people and places.
Hodgkin’s work demonstrates a penchant for rendering
the effects of light in numerous ways: in the solitude
and melancholy implicit in the dusky, crepuscular burnt-orange
tones of Bombay Sunset, 1972-3; the exposed surface
in Talking about Art, 1975, the sheen of flesh tones
in Waking up in Naples, 1980-4; the fresh translucence
of Rain, 1984-9; the blood-red luminescence of Venice
in the Autumn, 1986-9; the haze of distant clouds in
Old Sky, 1996-7; and the ethereal shadows in Dirty Mirror,
2000. Similarly, the complimentary fluorescent orange
and cobalt blue of Venetian Glass, 1984-7 reveal how
the Italian colour and light has impressed Hodgkin and
one is left to ponder whether he is mimicking the effects
of stained glass or the jewel-like colour effects of
mosaic or Murano glass. In each case, light is what
he sees and works with.
Hodgkin also has a passion for fervent colour and this
is a constant preoccupation in his work. For this exhibition
at IMMA, the artist has made the striking decision to
paint the gallery walls lemon-gold and ‘Grecian
Spa’, a shade of light green, to allow the paintings
to resonate and to allow for a greater fluidity. Some
areas have been left white in order to create a pause.
Like Matisse whom he admires, Hodgkin’s use of
colour is initially seductive. It is also poignant,
as he uses it as a means of inducing emotional content.
His predilection for ripe colour emanates from the tradition
of nineteenth-and twentieth-century French Painters.
Italy too, with its historical associations and strong
sense of colour is an important inspiration. Italy,
1998-2002, with its controlled tautness, equally contains
and overwhelms the viewer. The twilight tones inherent
in Venice Sunset, 1989, are reminiscent of Nolde’s
Sundown over the Tideland, 1939-40. By way of
contrast, vermilion and green harmonies are used to
great effect in Americana, 1999-2001, reminiscent of
the colouring in Otto Freundlich’s Green Red of
1939 or the Fauve works of Matisse.
Pattern is also a significant concern for Hodgkin.
He demonstrates surface through pattern and reinforces
the mood of the work in View from Venice, 1984-5. In
the outwardly simple painting A Rainbow, 2003-4, he
investigates the use of mark-making, evident in his
singular adaptation of traditional marks such as the
stripe, curve and spot. His unique pictorial language
transforms otherwise common daubs and bands of colour
into what could be traces of prismatic effects of light
captured in rain passing over a pastoral landscape.
Howard Hodgkin has followed his own path with conceptual
coherence, evident in his passion for colour, his mastery
of scale and his harnessing of memory and emotional
situations. As his work has progressed he has developed
a unique style alongside a compelling sense of artistic
identity. Over the past almost-five decades of work
included in this exhibition, it is apparent that his
language has grown more confident. As he remarked during
an interview with David Sylvester, ‘To be an honest
artist now, you have to make your own language, and
for me that has taken a very long time. Gradually, as
you make your own language, the more you learn to do
the more you can do, and the more you include.’
At every turn he gently reminds us that these images
are cultivated from subjective memory and that through
his remarkable technical virtuosity he has brought them
to life. His surroundings have provided him with the
basic facts, but memory is his salvation. Through his
singular style of metaphysical art, he recognises that
it is not everything to be a painter, or to represent
everyday existence; rather, it is necessary to allow
paintings to become a metaphorical projection. He creates
his own world and he is the catalyst through which the
paintings themselves come alive.
Karen Sweeney
Assistant Curator: Exhibitions
1. Howard Hodgkin:
Small Paintings, 1990, was organised by the British
Council and toured to the Musée des Beaux-Arts,
Nantes; Caixa de Pensions, Barcelona; Scottish National
Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; and Douglas Hyde Gallery,
Trinity College, Dublin.
2. Hodgkin quoted
in Andrew Graham-Dixon, Howard Hodgkin (London: Thames
and Hudson Ltd; New York: Harry N. Abrams Incl, 1994)
3. ‘Howard
Hodgkin interviewed by David Sylvester’ in Howard
Hodgkin: Forty Paintings: 1973-84, The Whitechapel Art
Gallery, London/ The British Council, 1984.
4. A painting practice
which takes domestic life as a subject by depicting
intimate domestic interiors, through the studied arrangement
of the figure.
5. Ibid 2
6. Hodgkin first
visited India in 1964, with Robert Skelton, then Assistant
Keeper of the Indian Collection in the Victoria &
Albert Museum, London.
7. Ibid 2
8. Ibid 2
9. The French novelist
and critic Marcel Proust (1871-1922) devoted his life
to unravelling the mystery of time and is best remembered
for his autobiographical work ‘A la Recherche
du temps perdu’, 1913-27.
Chronology
Howard Hodgkin was born in Hammersmith, London in 1932.
He was evacuated to the USA during the Second World
War, where he lived on Long Island from 1940-43. Between
1949-54, he studied at Camberwell School of Art and
at the Bath Academy of Art, Corsham, where he also taught.
Following shows in Britain and Europe in the 1970s,
he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale in 1984,
with a selection of 24 paintings, which exposed his
work to an international audience and the exhibition
travelled to London, Washington, New Haven and Hannover.
In 1985, he was awarded the second Turner Prize. He
was knighted for his
contribution to art in 1992 and awarded an Honorary
Doctorate by the University of Oxford. In 1995, a second
retrospective was organised by the Modern Art Museum
in Fort Worth, which travelled to New York and Düsseldorf.
In 2003 he was made a Companion of Honour.
The Irish Museum of Modern Art would like to thank
Howard Hodgkin for his enthusiasm and commitment to
this project and for his singular vision. We are grateful
to all of the museums and private collectors who have
lent works for this show. We would like to thank Tate;
the artist’s studio and Gagosian Gallery, London.
Published on the occasion of the exhibition
Howard Hodgkin at the Irish Museum of Modern Art
22 February – 7 May 2006
Texts © The Irish Museum of Modern Art and the
author
Edited by Rachael Thomas, Senior Curator: Head of Exhibitions
All images by Howard Hodgkin © The artist, 2006;
courtesy Gagosian Gallery, London, New York, Los Angeles
The exhibition is curated by Nicholas Serota, Director,
Tate and Enrique Juncosa, Director, IMMA
Exhibition organised by IMMA Dublin and Tate Britain
in association with the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte
Reina Sofía, Madrid.
An illustrated catalogue with new texts by Colm Tóibín
and Enrique Juncosa, plus specially selected existing
texts by Julian Barnes, Bruce Bernard, William Boyd,
Bruce Chatwin, James Fenton, Alan Hollinghurst, Anthony
Lane, and Susan Sontag accompanies the exhibition. It
is published by The Irish Museum of Modern Art in association
with Tate Publishing (price €21.95).
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electric,
mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
ISBN 1-903811-58-9
Irish Museum of Modern Art/Áras Nua-Ealaíne
Na hÉireann
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tel + 353 1 612 9900 fax + 353 1 612 9999
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front cover:
A Rainbow , 2004, oil on wood, 76.2 x 171.7 cm, Private
Collection, courtesy Martin Browne Fine Art Sydney
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