1932-2017
British printmaker and painter Howard Hodgkin is most associated with the abstract style. Exhibiting his first works in 1962, he created continuously up to his death at age 84 in 2017. London-born Hodgkin studied at first Camberwell Art School and then the Bath Academy of Art. His first works used only a few colours and curved forms, though this evolved over time. Later pieces used brighter and bolder colours and forms and had a more immediate, spontaneous quality. His most famous work is a series of paintings of Venice, known as the ‘Venetian Views’. It shows the ancient watery city at various times of the day. ‘Venice Afternoon’ is seen as the exceptional work in the quartet. Its creation was achieved through a complex printing process which used many layers and an incredibly complex printing process to build up its colourful effect. It is now on display at the Yale Centre of British Art in New Haven, Connecticut, in the USA. Howard Hodgkin created an abstract screen print on paper called ‘Swimming’ for the London 2012 Olympics. He won premier art award the Turner Prize in 1985, was knighted in 1992 and awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Oxford in 2000.
