Howard Hodgkin’s paintings get better and better

Louise Nicholson | Apollo | 9th May 2016

Asked to explain his paintings, Hodgkin tends to dodge and weave. His admits only that he “hates” painting and is a “representational artist of emotional situations.” Having said that, his paintings are distinctive in their spare brushstrokes and ravishing colour. An earlier review provides a characterisation as good as any: “Emotion is his fuel but, as Wordsworth said of a good poem, it is “emotion recollected in tranquility””.