Howard Hodgkin

Hodgkin was born in 1932 in Hammersmith, London. During the Second World War, Hodgkin was evacuated to the Hamptons in New York. On return to the United Kingdom, he was educated at Eton College and Bryanston School. He left school early to pursue an art degree, studying at the Camberwell Art School and later at the Bath Academy of Art in Corsham.

Hodgkin’s first solo show was in London in 1962. In 1980, Hodgkin was invited to exhibit work as part of the Hayward Annual at the Hayward Gallery alongside contemporaries Patrick Caulfield and Ben Nicholson. Hodgkin collaborated with the Rambert Dance Company’s choreographer Richard Alston in 1981, producing abstract work for the production of Night Music, and later for Pulcinella in 1987. In 1984, Hodgkin represented Britain at the Venice Biennale. In 1992, Hodgkin was asked to design a mural for the headquarters for the British Council in India in front of Charles Correa’s building. In 1995, Hodgkin printed his famous Venetian Views series which now permanently resides at the Yale Centre of British Art. A major exhibition of his work was mounted at Tate Britain in 2006, and in 2010 Hodgkin was featured in an exhibition entitled The Independent Eye: Contemporary British Art from the Collection of Samuel and Gabrielle Lurie at the Yale Centre of British Art. 

For his services to the arts, Hodgkin has been the recipient of various awards and honors throughout his career. In 1985, he won the Turner Prize. In 1992, Hodgkin was knighted for his services to the arts, after having received his CBE in 1977. He received an honorary fellowship from the London Institute in 1999, and in 2000 was awarded a DLitt by the University of Oxford. He was made a Companion of Honor in the 2003 New Year Honors for his services to art, and named the 2014 Whitechapel Gallery Art Icon. 

Hodking is collected internationally, including by the Art Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Fundacao dos Museus Regionais da Bahia, Brazil; Museum of Panjab University, Chandigarh; the Gottesman Etching Centre, Israel; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago and the Walker Art Centre in Minneapolis.