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Robert Hodgins: +/- 102

14 May - 25 June 2022
Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg

“… what goes on in the studio… is a jumble of meditation, instantaneous decision, change of direction, memories dredged up and astonishment by what is happening on the surface before one…” -Robert Hodgins on painting in his studio, in an interview with Ivor Powell, 1996

Robert Hodgins (1920-2010) was born in London, England, and had, in his own words, “a poor and tough beginning – which fostered a certain cynicism and determination in me.”

Following a few years working in Cape Town and living with a great uncle, 1938 to 1940, he joined the Union Defence Forces and saw service in the Intelligence Corps in Kenya and Egypt during World War II.

Artworks

Oil monotype
Frame: 76 x 57 cm
Unavailable
Oil monotype on paper
Work: 79 x 57 cm
Unavailable
oil on canvas
Work: 40.5 x 50.5 cm
Ink on paper
Work: 29.7 x 21 cm
Unavailable
oil and charcoal on canvas and wood
Work: 126 x 152 x 34 cm
gouache and spraypaint over silkscreen on paper
Hand Coloured Etching
36 x 27 cm paper size
Unavailable
Hand Coloured Etching
36 x 27 cm paper size
Unavailable
Oil on canvas
Work: 90 x 90 cm
Unavailable
ink and water colour on paper
Work: 21 x 29.7 cm
Oil monotype on paper
Work: 57 x 79 cm
Sepia ink & collage on brown paper
Work: 25.1 x 37.6 cm
Unavailable
oil monotype on archival paper
Work: 57 x 76.5 cm
oil on canvas, diptych, in artist's chosen frames
Work incl. frames each x2: 63 x 63 cm
Unavailable
Ink on paper
Work: 25.2 x 35.6 cm
Unavailable
Pen and ink on paper
Work: 35.6 x 25.8 cm
Unavailable
oil on canvas, diptych, in artist's chosen frames
Work, framed each x 2: 63 x 63 cm
Ink on paper
Work: 25.2 x 35.7 cm
Unavailable
Oil monotype on paper
Work: 79 x 57 cm
Oil on canvas
Work: 60 x 60 cm

About

Robert Hodgins image

Robert Hodgins

Robert Hodgins (b. 1920, Dulwich, England) became a Lecturer in 1954 at the School of Art, Pretoria Technical College, where he remained until 1962. Then he took up a position as Journalist and Critic for Newscheck magazine. Between 1966 and 1983 he was a Lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand Fine Art Department. At the end of 1983 he retired to take up painting full-time.

Some Hodgins’ paintings convey a feeling of deep seriousness and sadness; the paintings depict a sense of confusion that many people experience. However Hodgins believed that being an artist is about creating something new, an artist perfects the art of ingeniously reinventing content within society.

“Being an artist is about putting something into your subject matter that isn’t inherently there,” wrote Hodgins in 2000. “You are not at the mercy of your subject matter, it’s the content, and what you put into it, what you do with it, what extract from it, and what you put it with, that is so exciting. If you are aware of this, then you begin to build on the content of your whole life. Before you know where you are, you’re already thinking about the next work, and you could live to be 300. Paintings can be one-night stands or lifetime love-affairs – you never know until you get cracking”

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