HERE WE ARE IN CROYDON
signed and dated Hodgkin 79 and numbered 94/100 lower centre
watercolour, gouache and lithograph in colours on Moulin d'Auvergne hand-made paper
55.5 x 75cm; 22 x 29 3/4in
81 x 101cm; 32 x 40in (framed)
Property from a Private Collector, Kensington
Literature
Pat Gilmour, ‘Howard Hodgkin' in Print Collector's Newsletter, vol. 12, March-April 1981, p. 3
Liesbeth Heenk, Howard Hodgkin Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné, London, 2003, no. 49
The present lot depicts a room in an apartment that Hodgkin had visited in Tulsa, Oklahoma whilst on a trip to see David Hockney in Los Angeles. The room had been decorated by a husband of the film star Jean Harlow. According to Hodgkin, the title recalls a friend's witticism on visiting the apartment for the first time; a sarcastic remark poking fun at the ostentatious design and how it was very much not like Croydon.
Hodgkin was deeply attuned to the interplay of gesture and colour. Embracing time as a compositional element, his work is testament to his immersion in the intangibility of thoughts, feelings, and fleeting private moments. While many of his contemporaries were drawn to Pop or the School of London, he remained independent, initially marking his outsider status with a series of portraits of contemporary artists and their families. His first solo exhibition was at Arthur Tooth & Sons in London in 1962. In 1984 Hodgkin represented Britain at the Venice Biennale, and his exhibition Forty Paintings opened at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1985, the year he was awarded the Turner Prize.
Sold for £1,400
HERE WE ARE IN CROYDON
signed and dated Hodgkin 79 and numbered 94/100 lower centre
watercolour, gouache and lithograph in colours on Moulin d'Auvergne hand-made paper
55.5 x 75cm; 22 x 29 3/4in
81 x 101cm; 32 x 40in (framed)
Property from a Private Collector, Kensington
Literature
Pat Gilmour, ‘Howard Hodgkin' in Print Collector's Newsletter, vol. 12, March-April 1981, p. 3
Liesbeth Heenk, Howard Hodgkin Prints: A Catalogue Raisonné, London, 2003, no. 49
The present lot depicts a room in an apartment that Hodgkin had visited in Tulsa, Oklahoma whilst on a trip to see David Hockney in Los Angeles. The room had been decorated by a husband of the film star Jean Harlow. According to Hodgkin, the title recalls a friend's witticism on visiting the apartment for the first time; a sarcastic remark poking fun at the ostentatious design and how it was very much not like Croydon.
Hodgkin was deeply attuned to the interplay of gesture and colour. Embracing time as a compositional element, his work is testament to his immersion in the intangibility of thoughts, feelings, and fleeting private moments. While many of his contemporaries were drawn to Pop or the School of London, he remained independent, initially marking his outsider status with a series of portraits of contemporary artists and their families. His first solo exhibition was at Arthur Tooth & Sons in London in 1962. In 1984 Hodgkin represented Britain at the Venice Biennale, and his exhibition Forty Paintings opened at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1985, the year he was awarded the Turner Prize.
Auction: Fine Paintings & Works on Paper, 11th Dec, 2024
Auction Location: London, UK
Our sale of Fine Paintings and Works on Paper features 80 lots spanning four centuries. It includes works from two significant deceased estates: art dealer Alexander Iolas who promoted the bright and playful works by Jean Hugo and Niki de Sainte Phalle (lots 44-52), and gallerist Karsten Schubert, led by a green revolver on a vibrant red background by Michael Craig-Martin (lot 53), currently the subject of a retrospective at the Royal Academy, Piccadilly.
Colour dominates many of the post-War works. A stripe painting by the leading Washington Colour Field artist Gene Davis is a sale highlight. Davis worked alongside Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland also from D.C. in the 1950s and ‘60s perfecting his distinctive style. 65-6 by Davis (lot 58) dances and rhymes before the viewer’s eye. From the same collection and similarly optical are the works by Joe Tilson (lot 60) from 1965, and a rare painting by Justin Knowles (lot 59). Fellow colourist Howard Hodgkin is represented by Here we are in Croydon from 1979 (lot 63).
Modern British is led by an attractive group of watercolours by John Nash (lots 34-37), all acquired from the artist by the present owner’s grandfather. Other British figurative painters featured in the sale include Alan Lowdnes with a street scene in Altrincham near Manchester (lot 40), and three sketches by the young Michael Andrews (lots 41-43). Elsewhere there are works by John Piper and humorous illustrations by graphic artists Ronald Searle and Quentin Blake (lots 71 & 72).
Artists from further afield include two 18th/ 19th century Cuzco paintings from Peru and good Australian examples: a watercolour by John Russell of the Pont de Neuilly, and an atmospheric painting of a dust storm in the New South Wales out back by John Charles Goodhart of 1907 capturing a storm that year (lots 31 & 38). ‘en plein-air’-ists in the sale include Otto Modersohn, co-founder of Worpswede school in Bavaria in the 1890s (lot 19) and three delightful paintings of children by Scottish painter Gemmel Hutchison, influenced by Barbizon in France and the Hague School in Holland (lots 27, 28 & 30).
For more information please contact us | pictures@olympiaauctions.com | +44 (0)20 7806 5541
Viewing
PUBLIC EXHIBITION:
Sunday 8th December: 12:00pm to 4:00pm
Monday 9th December: 10:00am to 8:00pm
Tuesday 10th December: 10:00am to 5:00pm