What is your relationship to your memories? How would you paint or draw the mind picture of a memory of a past time and place to make it seem alive, emotionally vibrant, and present in this moment? These are some of the issues that inform the painting and print-making of the renowned British artist Sir Howard Hodgkin. A selection of 11 prints of Hodgkin, titled “Small Prints: Abstractions in Color,” will be showing until Feb. 26 at Meyer Fine Art gallery, 2400 Kettner Blvd., Suite 104. The show of Hodgkin’s prints at Meyer is running in conjunction with a larger exhibition of Hodgkin’s paintings, called “Time and Place,” at the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park, scheduled through May 1. Hodgkin uses a very complicated and involved process for making his prints, and each one is a little different and unique, even though they are a part of a numbered series. Hodgkin works in close collaboration with his printer, Jack Shirreff, as well as several painters who follow his instructions and carry out his conceptual ideas through hand coloring. Although there seems to be a similarity between the colorful abstract paintings of Hodgkin and his prints, he denies this, saying, “I always think of my prints as being completely different from my paintings. I want my prints to be like my pictures only in one way … I want them to be things that are self-sufficient.” The theme of Hodgkin’s prints has to do with the representation of memories. For example, his memories of the canals of Venice, Italy at different times of day, or even how the sunlight played on the swimming pool of is his artist friend, David Hockey, in Los Angeles, throughout the day. But Hodgkin is unique in that he has a highly refined, perhaps mystical perception of certain details of his memories. When he works, he brings the artistic beauty of these details to life through abstraction. As Hodgkin says, “There are certain elements of scale, form and color that are beyond verbal description.” Perry Meyer, owner of Meyer Gallery, thinks that there is a great deal of emotion conveyed in Hodgkin’s prints. “It is in the texture of Hodgkin’s prints that we find the emotion,” he said. For further information, see www.plmeyerfineart.com or call (619) 358-9512.
