Robert Griffiths Hodgins (South African, 1920-2010)


Tart bears South African National Gallery exhibition label (verso)oil on masonite61 x 30.5cm (24 x 12in).
|ProvenanceGifted to the current owner by the artist.ExhibitedCape Town, The Iziko South African National Gallery, Robert Hodgins, April 1986, no. 8436.Johannesburg, Market Gallery, Paintings with sculptures by Jan Neethling, 1978, no. A50.Born in Dulwich in 1920, the illegitimate son of a GI serviceman, Robert Hodgins's formative years were coloured by the deprivations of Britain's interwar Depression. His introduction to the visual arts was accidental. Hodgins's mother worked full-time, and during the school holidays he often had to entertain himself until she returned home. With no means but his meager pocket money, the young boy spent much of his time wandering around London's art galleries and museums, which were free, warm and dry.Forced to leave school and start earning a living at age 14, Hodgins's artistic inclinations were neglected for the next twelve years. He emigrated to South Africa in 1938 and joined the Union Defense Force in 1940. After an argument with his Commanding Officer, Hodgins was transferred to England in 1944 to help run a camp for 'non-white' prisoner of war escapees. When he was discharged after the war, he joined an emergency training initiative as an art teacher. Hodgins returned to South Africa for the second time in 1953. He was struck by the contrast with post-war Britain. Pretoria appeared to have been untouched by the conflict; a welcome relief to the deprivation and destruction he had experienced in London:"For two years I was euphoric...At this time, I painted very handsome nudes...with beautiful skins...Then - and this is where I don't quite know what happened - living in Pretoria, it began to strike me that everything was not quite as kosher as it looked. Slowly, all these beautiful, plump, female nudes became cumbrous and all the handsome, male nudes became heavy and distorted. I may have been quietly changing or I may have been finding out what I really wanted to do out of the training at Goldsmiths. Partly, it took those two years to find out the kind of things that stimulated me to painting, not so much the subject matter." (Robert Hodgins, interview with Rayda Becker in 2001)Tart exemplifies this shift in Hodgins' aesthetic. The woman is no idealized beauty. She proffers her body towards the viewer in an ungainly fashion. Hodgins makes no attempt to smooth the lumps and bumps, or airbrush her pubic hair. This portrait does not abide by the conventions of academic realism, as is evidenced by the unnaturalistic palette. The artist is more interested in communicating the experience of being human, with all its imperfection.BibliographyGivon & Dundas, 'A String of Beads: An interview with Robert Hodgins', Robert Hodgins, (Cape Town, 2002), pp.20-30.