Notes

Robert Hodgins once described painting to be ‘a bit like surfing’ in that a good deal of time is spent bobbing about, waiting for the right wave to come along. Having said this, it’s not about instant gratification. Where Robert Hodgins was concerned, paintings may only come into their own months or even years after their genesis. But beyond it all, he described being a painter as a ‘very nice way to live.’ Not restricted by the need for technical support, for him it was about accepting the responsibility of the mark of one’s hand that is negotiated by no one other than oneself, quoting Francis Bacon’s words of ‘courting accidents’, but then choosing the ones that work. Another Hodgins maxim is that ‘subject matter is not content.’ For Hodgins art was an ‘auto-intoxication that allows one to live through marriages, divorces, deaths and unhappy love affairs, and come up smiling all the time.’ – Kathryn Smith

Provenance

Simon Mee Fine Art, London, 4 August 2008.

The Oliver Powell and Timely Investments Trust Collection.

Exhibited

Simon Mee Fine Art, London, Robert Hodgins: "...Another Country....Another Time", 2008.