Bedtime,
Oil on Wood Panel
1999 - 2001

Signed and dated in ink on the back: Howard Hodgkin Bedtime 1999 - 2001

Copyright Howard Hodgkin, 2007
87.0 x 100.2 cm (34¼ x 39½ inches)

Provenance:
The Artist; Anthony d'Offay, London, 2002

Literature:
Price, Marla, Howard Hodgkin. The complete paintings, catalogue raisonne (London, Thames and Hudson, 2006), p. 340, no.354

Notes:
Bought by the Derek Williams Trust (2002) on loan to Amgueddfa Cymre - National Museum Wales (NMW A [L] 1207)

Born in 1932, Howard Hodgkin studied at Camberwell School of Art and later at the Bath Academy in Corsham. He was tutored by a number of artists, among them William Scott and Peter Lanyon, whose own teaching styles conformed to their broadly conventional methods of painting. Other influences on Hodgkin's works include Edouard Vuillard, Henri Matisse, Cubism and Abstract Expressionism. On the other hand his decorative patterning, intense colour and intimate size as well as his eclectic mix of styles owe much to Indian art, especially to Pahari miniature painting of which the artist is an avid collector.

Hodgkin's favorite subjects are the interior, the portrait and scenes from everyday life. Each of his paintings is the record of an encounter and they deal with trips to India, Egypt or Morocco, social occasions such as dinner with friends and memories of personal events. Although based on personal experiences, people and objects are not recognisable, since Hodgkin has no desire to depict them realistically. Particular moments are simultaneously reconstructed and obscured through a layering of the picture surface with distinct marks and intense colour, often achieved over a period of several years. His vocabulary of marks and brushstrokes consists of spots, stripes, commas and planes and is arranged in carefully calibrated compositions of figures depicted and hidden, of surfaces covered and revealed. The distinct surface textures come from successive paint layers and the incorporation of lumps of paint scrapped from the palette. He often has several paintings in hand but will only keep the one he is actively working on visible in his studio.

His move from canvas to wood as a support provided his with a surface that would withstand repeated brushstrokes and conveniently, brought its own structure. Fascinated by frames, Hodgkin incorporates them physically into his paintings, giving definition to his subject in the same way as the camera frames a scene and unconsciously captures the relationship between people and objects.

Copyright The Derek Williams Trust 2007
Text by Tanja Pirsig-Marshall
Not for sale.