hanging it Howard's Way

INO longer think it is possible," said Howard Hodgkin in 1993, "for an artist to think of himself as part of history." In an apparent contradiction,Hodgkin has welcomed the chance to hang some of his recent pictures alongside the mostly 17th century Old Master works in the collection of the Dulwich Picture Gallery.After all:"As for being tied to the art of the past,what other home have we got?"

Hodgkin,who will be soon be 69,is a great talker.Though he walks with a little difficulty because of arthritic knees,he talked volubly and sometimes with feeling,as we strolled around Sir John Soane 's 1817 Dulwich gallery.There is no contradiction, really."It 's a waste of time for an artist to think about his place in the scheme of things:it 's for others to judge."

But there 's no hubris involved in showing 13 of his paintings (the number was settled only when the hanging was done by him and Dulwich 's director,Desmond Shawe-Taylor,the day before the show opened)in the company of some glorious and great Old Masters.

Shawe-Taylor points out that "there 's not a great deal you can do to change a permanent collection such as ours.

Hanging the Hodgkins among our pictures is a great way to refresh it helping us to look at our own pictures again and differently."

Hodgkin 's pictures in this show come mainly from American collections, and though they probably include some of my best paintings,I was limited to what could be borrowed.I 'm obviously delighted to be able to hang my work in this remarkable purpose- built picture gallery.But,after that, things get more complicated.I found when I was doing my 'Artist 's Eye ' at the National Gallery (1979)where, theoretically,I was a completely free agent,that,of course,you never are.

"Hanging my own work there made me realise that it didn 't matter terribly what hung next to what - pictures have their own life,and they fight it out among themselves.And I had such varied pictures in that show I don 't think there were any winners or losers.

"The great thing about the collection at Dulwich is that it 's so small and domestic - you can have an impression (however erroneous) of the whole collection just by walking through it.Almost none of the pictures I admire - those I go back to Dulwich to look at - is going to hang next to one of my paintings; but it doesn 't really matter.

"I hope I 've made it clear that I 'm never trying to emulate,or even stand shoulder to shoulder with, these great artists," he said,, leafing through the full Dulwich collection catalogue later in his library in Bloomsbury,"I think that 's totally counterproductive."

As we looked at the Guido Reni St John the Baptist in the Wilderness (1636-7),which Hodgkin says is "the 24-carat masterpiece " at Dulwich,,I admitted to being puzzled by the congregation huddled together in the middle left of the canvas."I don 't 'do ' iconography," he said,,"so I don 't even wonder about it.Why not just be puzzled by it?Pictures don 't explain."

The one hanging decided in advance is in the main axis that runs the length of the gallery.Hodgkin 's The Last Time I Saw Paris (1988- 91)hangs between two great Poussins,Rinaldo and Armida (1628-30)and The Nurture of Jupiter (c.1636-7).This is a fascinating juxtaposition,especially with Rinaldo and Armida,as the two pictures have in common bold swathes and blocks of colour (just look at the blues of the Saracen sorceress 's skirt and the upward swoosh of blue in the centre of the Hodgkin).

"I like Poussin because he is a classical painter," Hodgkin told me..He too "always wanted to be a classical painter ".But not the usual sort,rather one who turns "tremendous feeling into a thing in a way that a romantic painter does not,or transforming moments of passion into monuments ".

HODGKIN 'S friend Susan Sontag once said that there is passion but no irony in Hodgkin 's work.

Like any classical artist, Hodgkin disciplines and gives shape to his own feelings in his paintings by pictorial language or marks,the splodges,the swipes and arcs of colour,the fat arrows,lozenges and wavy bands that have characterised many of his pictures from the Sixties to the most recent picture here,Afterwards,which has never been exhibited before.

Hodgkin starts all his paintings with something particular to do with human relationships;a quarrel, conversation,embrace,or meal.

"Then," as Judy Collins writes in the show 's catalogue,the title follows, "and these two ingredients interact throughout the execution until a painted equivalent appears,which satisfies the artist."

A painted equivalent.

There 's no irony,because irony is always a comment on something,and what Hodgkin gives us is the thing,the feeling itself.

Howard Hodgkin at Dulwich Picture Gallery,until 19 August.

Copyright 2001
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