- Produced by National Portrait Gallery
- Price £12.00
- Get ready for the first exhibition of portraits by one of Britain’s greatest artists
- Bring along friends that will want to see the artist’s final work, completed three months before his death
- Surf to Tickets
- See you at National Portrait Gallery
Hodgkin’s paintings are characterised by rich colour, complex illusionistic space and sensuous brushwork.
By emphasising these pictorial elements, his work frequently appears entirely abstract. However, over the course of 65 years, a principal concern of Hodgkin’s art has been to evoke a human presence.
The role of memory, the expression of emotion, and the exploration of relationships between people and places are all preoccupations. The exhibition explores Hodgkin’s development of a personal visual language of portraiture, which challenges traditional forms of representation.
Speaking to the Guardian on the show, curator Paul Moorhouse said Hodgkin’s final portrait was a fitting celebration of his life and and a nod to the energy he had until the end of his life.
“In the saddest but most wonderful possible way, it completes the story,” he said. “We’ve got the very first painting that he ever made, at 17, and the last painting he made, and so the entire career is now framed.”
Featured image shows Grantchester Road by Howard Hodgkin, 1975, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester (Wilson Loan 2006) © Howard Hodgkin
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COMPETITION: Win 1x pair of tickets to attend Howard Hodgkin: Absent Friends at National Portrait Gallery at a time of your choice, until Sunday 18th June. To enter the competition, send an email to ava@run-riot.com with the correct answer in the ‘subject’ line. The winner will be randomly selected.
Q: Which year did Hodgkin win the Turner Prize?
A: .1) 2016 .2) 2002 .3) 1964 .4) 1985
