I LOVE DISCOVERIES

I was lamenting to a friend that at the « rentrée » - (our term for the beginning of the business year which is in September) - the exhibitions opening were really not too exciting. In a list of 50 in the Beaux Arts magazine, I have noted down 9 I want to see. A few years ago when the list came out, I usually noted more than half of them and planned my trimester in consequence. Michel then asked me if I had seen Howard Hodgkin at the Gagosian Gallery. I hadn’t and as the exhibition had been prolonged, this was the last day. Plans were changed and off I went.

Prolonged perhaps but in the time I was there, at least an hour, only one other couple came in. Americans. Perhaps they knew who he was. I didn’t and as is always the case, I am very excited when I discover a new artist.

He’s English and works and lives in London. When I asked if the exhibition was also upstairs (alas no), I was told that Hodgkin had been there in that morning and left an hour before I arrived. Curse it. I would have loved to have met him. His description of his work is everything I believe in for abstract painting.

« I am a representational painter, but not a painter of appearances. I paint representation pictures of emotional situation. » - Howard Hodgkin.

This was his first solo exhibition in Paris although his list is long where he has had shows before.

It was sheer expression. The brush work is dynamic with an interchange of light and dark and therefore distinctive. These paintings were on wood too and what is really interesting is that he incorporates the frame as part of the painted surface. His work seems to be very spontaneous and yet from the titles, it is also very evocative of the places he has visited. Normandy, Bombay seem to enter into his memories in vivid colors and textures. Even the darker paintings were mystical and full of energy. It was a wonderful moment to discover this artist and there you ago, another one to follow - but alive! Thank you Michel.


Autumn in Bombay 2014

From the Head of the Bed - 2014

Arriving 2013-2014

Summer Rain 2002-2013

Indian Veg. 2013-2014

For Matisse

Indian Waves

Disturbed Night 2013-14

 These are just some photos I took - I wish I had taken them all but as I could see that the clouds were threatening, I left and wandered through the Tuileries to come home without a drop of rain





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