Howard Hodgkin and his exquisite Indian art collection

"My collection has been seen before in an incomplete form but it’s since grown considerably. Now I’m struck all over again by its quality... I never bought paintings or drawings on the tempting but distracting basis of their topography, their school of art, their theme, period or style. I just wanted great art"

Above quote sums up the sentiments of artist-collector Howard Hodgkin, who showcases his Indian art collection in its entirety with an emphasis on sheer artistic quality. He never acquired works on the basis of their topography, their theme, their school of art, period or style.
A large part of his collection for the last ten years has been on long-term loan basis to the Ashmolean, Oxfor. Selected pictures have also been shown in its Indian galleries. Some others have been lent by him especially for this grand exhibition.

The artist and his work was the subject of an essay by The Financial Times writer Jackie Wullschlager, who mentioned: “His vigorous/delicate abstracts, evocations of memories appealed for a long time particularly to literary audiences for their interiority of being, emotional depth and intellectual ambivalence. Although he won the Turner Prize in 1985, it’s only in the past decade or so that the artist has been more widely celebrated as one of Britain’s most significant living artists.

The publication interviews him on the eve of an exhibition of his collection of Indian art that he has amassed over half a century, at the Oxford-based Ashmolean. It narrates: “Hodgkin’s interest in Indian art began in adolescence under the tutelage of an art master at Eton, Wilfred Blunt. India, when he began visiting in 1964, must have been a stunning contrast after grey England. Hodgkin’s collection, each work chosen for its ‘intensity of feeling – a shot in the heart’, and with a painter’s eye, is among the most distinguished in the world.

“The great thing about Indian paintings is that they are very small – so, naturally, I only really like the big ones,” he concludes.