Howard Hodgkin: Forty-five paintings 1949–75

This retrospective started with Howard Hodgkin’s painting Memoirs, made when he was only sixteen.

London-born Howard Hodgkin (b.1932) studied at Camberwell College of Art and the Bath Academy of Art, where he later taught.

In 1962, he participated in a group exhibition at the ICA, and that same year had his first solo exhibition, at Arthur Tooth and Sons, London. In 1971, he had his first international solo exhibition in Germany, and was by now both teaching at Chelsea School of Art and a trustee of the Tate.

This retrospective at the Serpentine Gallery was the first exhibition of a substantial group of Hodgkin’s work in Britain and was first shown at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, earlier in 1976. Works in the exhibition included Bombay Sunset (1972) and Small Durand Gardens (1974, pictured).

The exhibition was curated by Richard Morphet, who wrote the accompanying catalogue.