Howard Hodgkin (1932–2017) is celebrated as one of the great colourists of modern British art. Although his works may look abstract, they are rooted in real experiences, emotions and memories. Rather than painting what he saw, Hodgkin painted how he remembered things felt, using colour and form to capture the sensations of people, places and moments from his life.
This gallery talk offers a general introduction to Hodgkin’s life, work and artistic background, framed around the central idea of colour as memory. It explores how he transformed personal experience into carefully structured compositions, reducing remembered encounters, interiors, gardens and landscapes into colour, shape and rhythm. The talk also considers his innovative printmaking, his deep connection to India, and his belief in turning private emotion into something formal, shared and enduring.
Ambassador Room - Doors for the Talk open at 12:30.
Entry to the exhibition on the same day, included in talk ticket price.
Banner image: Howard Hodgkin (1932 – 2017), Red Palm, 1986-87, Lithograph with hand-colouring in gouache on buff Arches Cover 300gsm paper, © The Estate of Howard Hodgkin. All rights reserved, DACS/Artimage 2026. Image courtesy Cristea Roberts Gallery, London.
