Notes

Critics and fellow academics admired Robert Hodgins’ unflinching ability to use ugliness in painting to reveal the more grotesque elements of human society, while remaining true to a painterly ideal of beauty. By his death on 15 March 2010, Hodgins was, in the art world of South Africa, a national treasure – a towering talent and an important influence on generations of students and followers of the fine arts, a respected mentor, a massive positive force of energy and inspiration and someone who is regarded by many as South Africa’s greatest contemporary painter. His exhibitions and collaborations at the Goodman Gallery with fellow artists Deborah Bell and William Kentridge won both critical and popular acclaim for 25 years. Possessing a lively wit and a mischievous and curious eye with which he critically evaluated the doings of humankind, the sensitivity to include himself in his impressions of our species, as well as a healthy cynicism, Hodgins was, above all, the keenest observer of life one could meet. Painting constantly taught him more about life and the process of producing images itself. He approached his canvas or paper with feeling and intellect and found the act of painting exciting and amusing, but also an intelligent means to understand and examine life, in all its splendour and grossness at once. At the end of Hodgins’ long and successful life, he found being ill ‘just too tedious!’ and was, at the end, ‘quite ready to depart this mortal coil if I cannot paint!’ He was involved in the ‘great human drama’ right to his last day and left a legacy of compelling work, which is displayed in our museums, academic and other public collections and continues to enrich South Africa’s cultural heritage. – Neil Dundas

Provenance

Simon Mee Fine Art, London, 4 January 2007.

The Oliver Powell and Timely Investments Trust Collection.