Howard Hodgkin. After All

About

The exhibition After All is also the title of a new series of prints by Hodgkin which will be shown alongside the best examples of Hodgkin’s printmaking from across five decades.

Works dating from 1977 to 2015 represent traces of locations, travel experiences, personal encounters and seasons, themes that Hodgkin has returned to over the years. The marks on his new works on paper are sure, deft, direct, and vital. They have a spontaneity that belie their lifelong gestation. These visual gestures have synaesthetic qualities, a colour that evokes a touch, a brush-mark that conjures up a taste or an aroma.

The new works, which include Grape Harvest, Fresh Fruit Crumble, Ice Cream, Coast and A Pale Reflection, all made by Hodgkin in 2016, hint at memories of England, days by the sea, the taste of an ice cream on a summer holiday, the wind brushing clouds across the sky, and yet they remain unequivocally in the present. Hodgkin achieves all this through a highly personal hybrid fusion of print-making and painting, an intaglio base of carborundum and aquatint accentuated and enlivened by hand-painted touches. He throws out the printmaking rule book in the service of hard won spontaneity.

Hodgkin's overseas travel experiences are captured in prints made in the early 90s Moroccan Door (1990), Indian Tree (1990-91) and Venice Evening (1995). These works were printed and editioned with the guidance of Jack Shirreff at the 107 Workshop in Wiltshire. In 2005, after fifteen years of collaboration, Hodgkin made For Jack. This print is one of three in the exhibition that were made as dedications, including For Antony made by Hodgkin for his partner in 2015 and a series of seven prints in seven different colour variations For Alan I – VII (2014), produced to honour Alan Cristea. Prints such as Jarid’s Porch (1977), Rain (2001), Black Monsoon (1988), Wet Day (2014), Sundown (2014) further explore the experiences life has offered Hodgkin over time.