On View
Not on viewObject number1996/7.40
First Portrait of Terence McInerney
Artist
Howard Hodgkin
(British, 1932 - 2017)
Date1981
Mediumoil on wood
Dimensionsframe: 50 × 55 1/8 in. (127 × 140 cm)
panel: 45 × 49 7/8 in. (114.3 × 126.7 cm)
panel: 45 × 49 7/8 in. (114.3 × 126.7 cm)
Credit LineGift of Richard and Ethel Groos
Exhibition HistoryFrom Christie's Catalogue:
"London, Royal Academy of Arts, A New Spirit in Painting, Jan.-Mar. 1981, no. 62 (illustrated).
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum; Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts; Osaka, The National Museum of Art; Fukuoka Art Museum, and Sapporo, Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Aspects of British Art Today, Feb.-Oct. 1982, p. 160, no. 129 (illustrated).
New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., Howard Hodgkin: Recent Paintings, Nov.-Dec. 1982, no. 7.
Venice, XLI Biennale, British Pavilion; Washington, D.C., The Phillips Collection; New Haven, Yale Center for British Art; Hannover, Kestner-Gesellschaft, and London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Howard Hodgkin: Forty Paintings 1973-84, June 1984-Aug. 1985, p. 57 (illustrated).
New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; Düsseldorf, Kunstverein fur die Rheinlande und Westfalen, and London, Hayward Gallery, Howard Hodgkin: Paintings 1975-1995, Nov. 1995-Feb. 1997, p. 60, no. 162 (illustrated)."
"KIA Art School Faculty Exhibition," KIA Galleries 2 & 5 (Oct. 25 - Nov. 23, 2003).
"Howard Hodgkin: Absent Friends," National Portrait Gallery, London (March 23 - June 18, 2017).
"Unveiling American Genius," KIA Permanent Collection Exhibition, Traditional, Markin, Nay and Groos Galleries (March 1, 2021 - December 31, 2023).
Label Text“I am a representational painter, but not a painter of appearances. I paint representational pictures of emotional situations.” This boldly expressive, colorful painting was featured among 70 portraits recently exhibited at London’s National Portrait Gallery in Howard Hodgkin: Absent Friends. Two weeks before the March opening, the artist passed away at age 84, after a career as one of Britain’s greatest contemporary artists. First Portrait of Terence McInerney appears abstract, but as the title advises, should be understood as a portrait. The artist always approached blank panels with a specific subject in mind—in this case, a vivid visual memory of his friend, an art dealer who shared Hodgkin’s passion for Indian painting. First Portrait progressed from a literal likeness to an expression of the artist’s emotional connection to Terence. A reclining figure with a bearded face can be discerned, but as Hodgkin worked his surfaces, the figure was overtaken by layers of color and shapes that expressed the artist’s personal feelings toward the man. Recognized as a master of color, Hodgkin confidently wields contrasting warm and cool tones in stripes and dots that both emphasize the flatness of the painting and subtly suggest depth. Barely contained behind orderly rows of blue dots, a core of vibrant volcanic orange glows. Hodgkin—who painted on wood rather than canvas—often surrounded his scenes with painted borders that extended onto the frame as a way to contain fragile memories. At the 1984 Venice Biennale, Hodgkin’s solo installation representing Britain was widely admired and drew 50,000 visitors. He hung his two portraits of Terence McInerney (this First Portrait and a Second) together on a gallery wall he had painted green to reflect and diffuse the shimmering light from the Venetian lagoon. Time magazine said of his work in Venice, “Not since Robert Rauschenberg’s appearance at the Biennale 20 years ago has a show by a single painter so hogged the attention of visitors, or looked so effortlessly superior to everything else on view by living artists.” Though recognition did not come early, he earned numerous honors during his lifetime, including the Turner Prize (1985) and British knighthood (1992). [Collection Highlight]
