Howard Hodgkin

Sir Gordon Howard Eliot Hodgkin (born 6 August 1932) is a British painter and printmaker. His early paintings tend to be made up of hard-edged curved forms in a limited number of colours. Around the beginning of the 1970s, his style became more spontaneous, with vaguely recognisable shapes presented in bright colours and bold forms. His works might be called "semi-abstract", and are often compared to Henri Matisse.

Howard Hodgkin in 1987.

Quotes

• It takes a long time for the gleam in the eye to turn into something solid.
  • As quoted in "Howard Hodgkin: the later, greater Hodgkin" by Karen Wright, in The Telegraph (5 April 2008)

• I never think that anything I do is courageous.
  • As quoted in "Howard Hodgkin: the later, greater Hodgkin" by Karen Wright, in The Telegraph (5 April 2008)

Quotes about Hodgkin

• He is highly emotional. It is not an affectation. His emotions are very close to the surface and are there in the depth of colour he uses in his paintings.
  • Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate Gallery, as quoted in "Howard Hodgkin: the later, greater Hodgkin" by Karen Wright, in The Telegraph (5 April 2008)

• I ask the obvious question to this man who often spends years on each of his paintings: "How do you know when a painting is finished?" His response: "The picture tells you."
  • Karen Wright, in "Howard Hodgkin: the later, greater Hodgkin" in The Telegraph (5 April 2008)