Howard Hodgkin

M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York
Douglas Geurring, Florida
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York
Christie's, New York, November 20, 1996, lot 45

London, Waddington Galleries; New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., Howard Hodgkin: New Paintings, August - November 1988, p. 31, illustrated in color
Durham, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, The Evolution of the Nasher Collection, October 2005 - May 2006

Brooks Adams, "Howard Hodgkin at Knoedler," Art in America, vol. 77, January, 1989, p. 144
Michael Auping, John Elderfield and Susan Sontag, Howard Hodgkin Paintings, London, 1995, no. 219, p. 188, illustrated
Marla Price, Howard Hodgkin The Complete Paintings Catalogue Raisonné, New York, 2006, cat no. 219, p. 230, illustrated in color

This work is in very good condition overall. The colors of the painting are richer and more saturated than they appear in the catalogue illustration. The panel is sound and there is no evidence of splitting or cracking. There are two small and unobtrusive spot losses to the surface which reveal the underpaint. There are scattered cracks to the artist's wood frame, which is irregularly shaped (not visible in the illustration) and inherent to the artist's intent.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Hodgkin is widely regarded as one of the most important artists working in Britain today having emerged as a major figure in the 1970s.   His oeuvre traces the evolution of his vocabulary through the portraits on canvas of friends and interiors of the 1960s, to his adoption in the mid 1970s of the wooden panel and frame, defining painting as object, and through to the later, looser and more gestural paintings of the 1990s. Hodgkin himself has said that he paints "representational pictures of emotional situations."

Despite their apparent spontaneity and usually small scale, many of Hodgkin's paintings take years to complete, with the artist returning to a work after a wait and then changing it or adding to it. He often paints over the frames of his pictures, emphasizing the idea of the painting as an object. Several of his works are on wooden items, such as bread-boards or the tops of old tables.  Binding together all his work is his consistent exploration of the representation of personal encounters, emotional experience and memories of specific events. Whether trips to India, Egypt or Morocco, or social occasions such as dinner with friends, particular moments are simultaneously reconstructed and obscured through a layering of the picture surface with distinct marks and intense colors, often achieved only over a period of several years.

While associations have been made to Matisse, Vuillard, Degas and American abstract expressionist painting, as well as Pahari miniature paintings of which the artist is an avid collector through his many trips to India, Hodgkin has continued to forge a strongly independent path, developing a distinctive style.