1962

The graphic artist and critic Roger Coleman arranges for Hodgkin to show 9 works, including Dancing, Bedroom, Afternoon and Mr and Mrs Robyn Denny, at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts in ‘Two Young Figurative Artists’ (with Allen Jones) – view a gallery of the exhibition and a review by Conry Maddox.

Coleman, his first wife Margaret and his second wife Brigid Seagrave become friends. At the age of 30 Hodgkin has his first solo exhibition at Arthur Tooth & Sons, London. “His work has none of the drabness which is too frequently associated by modern artists with pretensions to intellect”, Edward Lucie-Smith writes in the catalogue: “…this is painting to be enjoyed – that is, providing your idea of enjoyment doesn’t rule out the occasional need to think.”

It is not a commercial success. “I think I’ve been fortunate in that I wasn’t at all successful until I was middle-aged”, Hodgkin told Lucie-Smith in 1981, “…but there were many bitter moments to live through when it was so long before anybody seemed to want to look at my pictures at all.”