Exhibition note

“Howard Hodgkin: Recent Paintings” at Knoedler & Company, New York.
December 4, 1993–January 15, 1994

This exhibition of recent work by the British painter Howard Hodgkin was his most interesting show in some time, but only part of the interest derived from Hodgkin’s unexpected use of a large format. After a career spent making paintings averaging twelve to fifteen inches square, and at the most only three feet to a side, Hodgkin has lately allowed himself a little more elbow room: some of his new paintings measure as much as six feet by ten feet. These larger paintings don’t really work—they are too diffuse and, in some instances, bombastic. But the presence of these large paintings alongside others more conventionally scaled, and the overall unevenness of the work on view, made for an instructive exhibition. It provided insight into just what makes certain of Hodgkin’s paintings work and what makes...