Howard Hodgkin: India on Paper

14 October 2017 – 7 January 2018, Victoria Art Gallery, Bath UK.

From the press release: ‘Until his recent death Howard Hodgkin, one of the foremost artists of our time, nurtured very positive relations with the Victoria Art Gallery through exhibitions and acquisitions. This unique exhibition celebrates these connections whilst exploring his love affair with India, which he visited for the first time in 1964. The trip was a revelation and he returned almost every year, moved by a quality of openness in the daily life of the subcontinent, where “everything is very visible, somehow, there. Life isn’t covered up with masses of objects, masses of possessions”.

Hodgkin visited and worked in Mumbai until early this year, painting pictures using the richest tones and colours which in turn delight and inspire audiences all over the world. This unique exhibition will feature a range of Hodgkin’s Indian-themed works on paper including gouache paintings, editioned prints and hand-coloured impressions made over half a century. Some of these date from the period when he taught at Bath Academy of Art (1955-66), whilst others sprang from his trust in the hand-colouring skills of Jack Shirreff at the 107 Workshop in Shaw, Wiltshire.

Subjects covered in this exhibition include the Indian Views (1971), evoking scenes glimpsed through the windows of railway carriages, three very large prints Delhi, Heat and In India (2012), and the Indian Waves series of 1990-91 which were painted onto sheets of handmade Indian paper.

Lunchtime exhibition tours: every Thursday, 19 October to 21 December inclusive, 12:30-13:00.  Included in ticket price, free to Discovery Card holders.’

 

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