HOWARD HODGKIN (1932-2017) - photo 1
HOWARD HODGKIN (1932-2017) - photo 2
HOWARD HODGKIN (1932-2017) - photo 3
HOWARD HODGKIN (1932-2017) - photo 4

HOWARD HODGKIN (1932-2017)

Sold
£ 81 900
Auction dateClassic
20.10.2022 13:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
Archive
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Archive
ID 831252
Lot 167 | HOWARD HODGKIN (1932-2017)
HOWARD HODGKIN (1932-2017)

Mr and Mrs James Tower

oil on canvas

36 x 48 in. (91 x 122 cm.)

Painted in 1962.





Provenance

Acquired by the present owner in the mid-1980s.



Literature

R. Denny, 'London Letter', Das Kunstwerk, no. 16, November - December 1962, pp. 70-80.

Exhibition catalogue, Corsham: Painters and Sculptors, Totnes, Arts Council of Great Britain, Dartington College of Art, 1965, n.p., no. 84, illustrated.

M. Price, Howard Hodgkin, The Complete Paintings: Catalogue Raisonné, London, 2006, pp. 58-59, no. 28, illustrated.



Exhibited

London, Arthur Tooth & Sons, British Painting and Sculpture, Today and Yesterday, April 1962, no. 8.

Totnes, Arts Council of Great Britain, Dartington College of Art, Corsham: Painters and Sculptors, July - August 1965, no. 84: this exhibition travelled to Sheffield, Graves Art Gallery, August - September; Walsall, City Art Gallery, September - October; Cambridge, Arts Council Gallery, October; and Middlesbrough, City Art Gallery, November - December.

London, AIA Gallery, AIA Retrospective: 1930-1970, December 1970, no. 13.



Special notice


Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.



Post lot text

The present work is a vibrant depiction of the ceramicist, James Tower, and his wife Maureen. Painted in 1962 and shown at Arthur Tooth & Sons that same year, Mr and Mrs James Tower reflects the artist’s movement away from figurative portraiture. By 1962, Hodgkin’s portraits ‘gravitated increasingly to expressive symbolism’, becoming progressively abstracted as he explored connections between colour and emotion; using paint to convey feelings and memories rather than replicating visual reality (see P. Moorhouse, Howard Hodgkin: Absent Friends, London, 2017, p. 21).

Between 1956 and 1966, Hodgkin taught part time at Bath Academy of Art, Corsham. One of the most progressive and forward-thinking art schools in the country, it counted artists such as Peter Lanyon, William Scott and Adrian Heath amongst its alumni and teaching staff - as well as James Tower - and many were painted by the artist in the early 1960s. Friendship was hugely important to Hodgkin and his relationships with people were not only at the centre of his life, but also informed his best work. Mr and Mrs James Tower is a wonderful example of metamorphosis in Hodgkin’s oeuvre; a mid-point between earlier figurative representations and the entirely abstracted portraits like Mr and Mrs James Kirkman (1980-84). Although the picture still contains obvious figurative references to traditional portraiture, Hodgkin’s use of geometric shapes and bold graphic outlines moves the work further away from the representational. Hodgkin wanted ‘to paint pictures where people didn’t care what anything was, because they were so enveloped by them’ (H. Hodgkin, quoted in A. Graham-Dixon, Howard Hodgkin, London, 2001, p. 214).

One of the most striking elements of this work is the bold use of colour; in particular, the thick curved lines of blue and red stand out against the neutral ground. However, the application - firm and impatient brush strokes with modest variations in tone - contributes to compositional flatness, allowing his sitters to blend into their ambiguous surroundings. This experiment with simplification is reminiscent of Matisse, whose work Hodgkin encountered at The Museum of Modern Art when he was evacuated to New York during the Second World War. Like Matisse, Hodgkin understood the expressiveness of colour. Hodgkin would often not finish a painting until months or even years later, allowing time to warp the emotional ethos of the subject. The feelings that colours represent are therefore a more important record than the actual likeness of his subjects. This painting is a “portrait” in the sense that the subject’s names are the title of the work, but it does not derive from direct visual analysis. By purposefully flattening the scene, blending the subjects with their ambiguous background, Hodgkin has attempted to distill his recollection into a tangible, painted presence: a physical manifestation of his memories. Mr and Mrs James Tower is not just a portrait of the couple, but a reflection of the relationship between sitter and artist.
Artist:Howard Hodgkin (1932 - 2017)
Applied technique:Oil on canvas
Category:Painting
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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20.10.2022 – 20.10.2022
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