The Ashmolean To Display Indian Paintings from the Howard Hodgkin Collection

Written by Humphrey Bickerton Monday, 30 January 2012 22:54

Oxford, England.- The Ashmolean Museum is proud to present "Visions of Mughal India: The Collection of Howard Hodgkin", on view at the museum from February 2nd through April 22nd. Howard Hodgkin has been a passionate collector of Indian paintings since his school days and his collection has long been considered one of the finest of its kind in the world. At times he has devoted almost as much effort to developing his collection as to his own work as a painter. It will go on show at the Ashmolean for the first time in its entirety. The collection comprises most of the main types of Indian court painting that flourished during the Mughal period (c. 1550–1850), including the refined naturalistic works of the imperial Mughal court; the poetic and subtly coloured paintings of the Deccani Sultanates; and the boldly drawn and vibrantly coloured xxstyles of the Rajput kingdoms of Rajasthan and the Punjab Hills.

Above all, this is a personal collection, formed by an artist’s eye. Artistic quality has always mattered most to Hodgkin – the narrative content and other aspects of paintings far less.  All his Indian pictures are of an unusual or exceptional quality. They include illustrations of epics and myths, royal portraits and many scenes of court life or hunting scenes. There is a large and outstanding group of elephant portraits and studies of the Mughal and Kota schools. Some of the works in the collection vividly evoke the urban or daily life of India, a country which has inspired Hodgkin on his frequent visits made over some 50 years. There is also great diversity in these pictures, some containing exciting passages or juxtapositions of colour, as can also be found in Hodgkin’s own work. But many others are lightly coloured brush drawings which show an expressive mastery of line. A large part of Hodgkin’s collection has been on long-term loan to the Ashmolean for the last ten years and selected pictures have been shown in the Museum’s Indian galleries. Others have been lent by Howard Hodgkin especially for this exhibition. Many of the works which will be shown have never been exhibited to the public before. "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" said Howard Hodgkin.

Founded in 1683, the Ashmolean Museum is the most significant museum of art and archaeology in the heart of Britain, and the finest university museum in the world.  Its collections are large, rich and unusually diverse, ranging from archaeology to fine and decorative arts, and from numismatics to casts of classical sculpture from the  great museums of Europe. The Ashmolean is home to the best collection of Predynastic Egyptian material in Europe; the only great collection of Minoan antiquities outside Greece; the largest and most important group of Raphael drawings in the world; the greatest Anglo-Saxon collections outside the British Museum; a world-renowned collection of coins and medals; and outstanding displays of Indian, Chinese, Japanese and Islamic art. The works and objects in these remarkable collections tell the story of civilisation and the aspirations of mankind from Nineveh and ancient Egypt, to the Renaissance, right up to the triumphs of twentieth century Europe. Visitors are welcome to The Jameel Centre to view the Ashmolean’s study collections of Eastern Art. The Eastern Art collections comprise over 30,000 objects spanning 5,000 years. They include ceramics, textiles, sculpture, metalwork, paintings, prints, and other decorative arts from the Islamic  world, South and South-East Asia, China, Japan, and Korea. Highlights of the collection include the world’s foremost collection of modern Chinese art; Japanese art of the Meiji period; Islamic ceramics, embroideries and textile fragments; and Indian, Tibetan and South-East Asian sculptures. Launched in February 2010, The Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art, provides online access to the Ashmolean Museum's Eastern Art department collections. As part of the University of Oxford, the collections hold particular value for teaching and research, but they also appeal to visitors who may not be as familiar with the material. This project aims to open up the collections and enable everyone to find what they are interested in; whether for research, artistic inspiration or general curiosity. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.ashmolean.org/

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