Howard Hodgkin
Untitled (After Lunch), 1981
Oil, gouache and soft ground etching on Arches paper
22 1/4 x 29 7/8 in, 56.6 x 76 cm
Initialled and dated 'HH '81' and inscribed 'After Lunch, 1980, overpainted 80-81' verso
“For me, as I have often said, the subject and object must become one thing. If this doesn’t happen then for me there is nothing – the picture doesn’t exist”...
“For me, as I have often said, the subject and object must become one thing. If this doesn’t happen then for me there is nothing – the picture doesn’t exist”
Howard Hodgkin
By the 1980s Howard Hodgkin was established as one of the greatest British artists of his generation. He began his training at Camberwell School of Art under the influence of the Euston Road artists who strove to depict scenes of everyday life in London through realism and acute observation. Hodgkin differed in his approach, mixing figuration with abstraction to create paintings imbued with raw expressionism, powerful colour relationships and rich texture.
Hodgkin would often spend years working on a single picture, returning to it until again and again until it captured the moment or feeling he had experienced. He worked on 'Untitled (After Lunch)' for around two years. The printed base of the painting is overlayed by layers of vibrant dappled paint that create an atmosphere of hazy tranquillity. Hodgkin was inspired by Vuillard whose intimisme paintings of family and friends were brought to life with subtle tonal variations and soft diffused light.
Hodgkin gifted 'Untitled (After Lunch)' to the artist Jean Gibson, wife of fellow Royal Academician Anthony Whishaw, after she visited his studio in 1981.
Two years after completing the painting Hodgkin represented Britain at the 1984 Venice Biennale to rave reviews and the year following was awarded the coveted Turner Prize. Hodgkin had two major retrospectives in London during his lifetime, first at Tate Britain in 2006 and then at the National Portrait Gallery in 2017. His paintings can now be found in many international collections such as Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate, London and Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.
Howard Hodgkin
By the 1980s Howard Hodgkin was established as one of the greatest British artists of his generation. He began his training at Camberwell School of Art under the influence of the Euston Road artists who strove to depict scenes of everyday life in London through realism and acute observation. Hodgkin differed in his approach, mixing figuration with abstraction to create paintings imbued with raw expressionism, powerful colour relationships and rich texture.
Hodgkin would often spend years working on a single picture, returning to it until again and again until it captured the moment or feeling he had experienced. He worked on 'Untitled (After Lunch)' for around two years. The printed base of the painting is overlayed by layers of vibrant dappled paint that create an atmosphere of hazy tranquillity. Hodgkin was inspired by Vuillard whose intimisme paintings of family and friends were brought to life with subtle tonal variations and soft diffused light.
Hodgkin gifted 'Untitled (After Lunch)' to the artist Jean Gibson, wife of fellow Royal Academician Anthony Whishaw, after she visited his studio in 1981.
Two years after completing the painting Hodgkin represented Britain at the 1984 Venice Biennale to rave reviews and the year following was awarded the coveted Turner Prize. Hodgkin had two major retrospectives in London during his lifetime, first at Tate Britain in 2006 and then at the National Portrait Gallery in 2017. His paintings can now be found in many international collections such as Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate, London and Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.