India with Howard Hodgkin

Come into the Garden, Maud

The joy and energy in the paintings describes the artists journey; in this documentary Hodgkin’s becomes our guide. 

A Picture of the Painter Howard Hodgkin documentary celebrates Howard Hodgkin’s 50 years of painting exhibition at The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin 2006. The documentary is filmed in a most magnificent location; the large bustling Indian town square in Fatehpur Sikri meaning ‘City of Victory’ UNESCO’s ghost town. Seeing the documentary on screen, is pure escapism. I can see the meditative and ponderous powers on the imagination of the ineffable grandeur preserved, as a backdrop to local people going about their everyday lives, notably the Indian women and children are dressed in a vivid range colours, interacting with each other through work and discourse; creating an array of visual colour and compositional arrangements that Hodgkin keenly observes and admires.

 Indian Sea

 Green Monsoon

 Sad Flowers

The city itself was founded as the capital of Mughal Empire in 1571 by Emperor Akbar almost 10 years later due to the lack of an adequate water supply, the town was abandoned and the capital moved to Lahore in present day Pakistan. In observing everything from the Mughal architectural splendour, the warmth of the desaturated pinkish hue façades to the sunset sky, the sun lowering in the delicate orange sky projecting sharp beams of light on the touching the tips of the architectural domes that are symmetrically balanced around the square. The sights and sounds of people gathered working, talking, and singing, playing instruments does not look like a ghost town, but rather an everyday place that is not every day, that fortunately is not inundated with tourists, due to the Taj Mahal being an hour’s distance away.

Julian Barnes describes a Hodgkin painting he has at home featured in the documentary as being ‘a blazing picture of complete joy, with a hint of green grey undertones that could symbolize melancholy.’ There is not much sadness to see, the joy and enthusiasm of orange in the painting below titled Keep it Quiet is fantastic. Dynamic brush strokes give the illusion of depth with their disrupted and blurred edges. If you asked Hodgkin’s what a painting means he’ll avoid explaining; as it’s very difficult to do so working from his nervous system from a moment or memory. This doesn’t deter Alan Yentob and us as the audience for seeking further explanations. We are met with Hodgkin’s evasiveness; it is here we bond with both the artist and interviewer, consequently the lack of explanation enables the viewer to interact with the pieces respectfully and mindfully.

The titles such as Rain, Sad Flowers, Keep it Quiet, are a few mentioned subjects of the pieces, and sometimes these subjects can be literal or ironic and coincidental. Julian Barnes quotes, “When travelling with Howard he and have a running joke occasionally sitting in a bar or relaxing in a restraint, staring at a sunset, gazing at a piazza. He will say with a delivery poised between self-satire and true contentment… I feel a picture coming on. I richly reply I feel a novel coming along. He means it more than I do, well I never mean it. And I often wonder what is happening inside his head at these moments. Howard looks intently all the time, but when he says he feels a picture coming on, he seems to be looking differently, the moment is digestive, ruminant. And I know he will remember everything, that’s to say everything he needs; and will need.” If you love India, travel, and culture and want to feel a sense of departure from the everyday. Hodgkin’s paintings offer the most sublime respite.

Keep it Quiet

Links: A Picture of the Painter Howard Hodgkin 

Irish Museum of Modern Art

The Indian Collection