Howard Hodgkin became a prominent figure in British art in the 1970s for painting on wooden supports such as drawing boards and door frames instead of canvas. Using broad, gestural brushstrokes and a vivid palette of contrasting colors that emphasized the rectangular picture plane, Hodgkin defined painting as an object. While his early compositions have a collaged geometric flatness, Hodgkin’s later work, including etchings and aquatint prints, has increasingly incorporated more complex fluid patterning, reminiscent of Henri Matisse’s The Morrocans (1916), Édouard Vuillard’s interiors, and Paturi miniatures from India, of which he was an avid collector.
Howard Hodgkin became a prominent figure in British art in the 1970s for painting on wooden supports such as drawing boards and door frames instead of canvas. Using broad, gestural brushstrokes and a vivid palette of contrasting colors that emphasized the rectangular picture plane, Hodgkin defined painting as an object. While his early compositions have a collaged geometric flatness, Hodgkin’s later work, including etchings and aquatint prints, has increasingly incorporated more complex fluid patterning, reminiscent of Henri Matisse’s The Morrocans (1916), Édouard Vuillard’s interiors, and Paturi miniatures from India, of which he was an avid collector.
