Howard Hodgkin’s theory of colour and his creative engagement with India

British painter Howard Hodgkin, who died last year, was the subject of a lecture delivered by his longtime partner, the music critic Antony Peattie, at Delhi’s British Council on 26 November. Bhumika Popli writes about the talk, and about Hodgkin’s art.

a battle horse, a nude model, or some anecdote—is essentially a flat surface covered with colours assembled in a certain order.’”

Hodgkin came to India for the first time in 1964 and made several works inspired by this country. One of his prints, on view at the Delhi show, is entitled Indian Tree. It combines bright red and green, its broad brushstrokes reminding you of the mural on the library wall.

Peattie spoke to Guardian 20 on the artist’s Indian connection. “Howard once said, ‘I couldn’t do my work without India.’ India freed his imagination and he felt immense sympathy with the vision India has, the openness to experiment with an uninhibited use of colour, for example. Diana Vreeland, editor of Vogue magazine, had once said, ‘Pink is the navy blue of India pink.’ Meaning navy blue is all we wear. Pink in India can be used on a building, on a man’s clothes. You are not inhibited in that sense, saying that pink is for girls and blue for boys. Pink is the navy blue of India, which is a completely new, different, original take on colour. And I think Howard’s very uninhibited use of colours owes something to India and Indian art.”

According to Peattie, Hodgkin wanted to reach people’s feelings and didn’t want his work to be just an intellectual exercise. On Hodgkin’s engagement with the public at large, Peattie says, “There is a special bond between Howard’s work and people. Viewers often get very emotionally excited with his work. When Howard had an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the ’90s, a man came up to him and said, ‘You are driving my wife mad.’ Howard was very shocked as the man was very aggressive until it was clear to him that the man meant that his wife was moved by the painting. That’s a very special bond and that’s why Howard’s works are often hung in homes and not in museums.”