Hodgkin, Sir Howard

Hodgkin, Sir Howard (1932– ). British painter and printmaker. He was born in London and studied at Camberwell School of Art, 1949–50, and Bath Academy of Art, 1950–4; he later taught at Bath, 1956–66. His paintings sometimes look completely abstract, but he bases his work on specific events, usually an encounter between people—‘one moment of time involving particular people in relation to each other and also to me'. He has travelled widely, making several visits to India, and his preference for flat colours and decorative borders reflects his admiration for Indian miniatures, of which he has made a collection. His work has won him a reputation as one of the outstanding colourists in contemporary art, although Brian Sewell has referred to him disparagingly as ‘a painter of pretty post- Omega tea trays’ ( Hodgkin is in fact distantly related to Roger Fry and was familiar with Omega products from childhood). Sewell's comment reflects the small scale characteristic of Hodgkin's work, although in the 1980s he began producing much bigger pictures. A well-known figure in the art world, he has been a Trustee of the National Gallery and the Tate Gallery, and in 1985 he was awarded the Turner Prize. He was knighted in 1992, and in 1997 there was a major exhibition of his work at the Hayward Gallery, London. His work is well represented in the Tate Gallery.