Robert Hodgins
4 - 29 April 2020

João Ferreira Gallery is pleased to announce that 16 new paintings by Robert Hodgins will be available as well as several sets of limited edition prints.

Hodgins says of his works "I've wasted no part of my life. It is all there"; this exhibition reflects the energy and fullness of his 84 years of life.

"The duty of an artist" says Robert Hodgins, "is to pour into a painting as much as you know and as much as you've got. The only way I can do it is to go into a sudden mesmeric state when I really can't say why I do certain things. You put on paint, you fiddle around, you do a bit of drawing, you hope that some yeastiness will start happening."

Robert Hodgins displays a huge diversity of emotion in his works. Moving through dualities, the sinister and serious themes in his paintings contrast against the surface humour and vibrant colour. In a fresh childlike fashion that only he is capable of, Robert Hodgins engages his audience. Subtle suggestions in colour and form compels the viewer to derive his own meaning from the works.

"Francis Bacon talks about painting going over the edge," says Hodgins. "That's what I feel so strongly. The painting takes flight and you know that it's you that's taking flight because obviously paintings don't have a life of their own. And suddenly things you have forgotten you remember push themselves into a painting."

Robert Hodgins' work has been shown in museums and art galleries across the world and is included in important South African collections, as well as a number of international collections.

With thanks to the Goodman Gallery.

Mme Tellier and her Rosebuds, 2004, Oil on canvas, 90 X 120cm (35 3/8 X 47 1/4")
Untitled, 2004. Oil on canvas, 90 X 90 cm (35 3/8 X 35 3/8")