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27 August 2001 by Andries Loots |
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Opening at the Aartklop Festival in Potchefstroom, will be an exciting Retrospective exhibition of
one of South Africa's great artists,
Robert Hodgins.
The exhibition will
celebrate the artist's 50 year painting career. |
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Robert Griffiths Hodgins was born
in Dulwich, London on the 27 June 1920 and resided in SA from 1953 after
visiting the
country for the first time during 1938.
Between 1947-50 he studied part-time and between 1950-53 full-time at the Goldsmith's College of` Art, University of London, gaining a National Diploma in Design (Painting). Between 1954-62 he taught painting and drawing at the Pretoria Technical College and 1962-66 he worked as a journalist, art critic and then Assistant Editor of the Newsweek. As senior Lecturer he lectured at the Department of Fine Art, University of the Witwatersrand from 1966 to 1983. |
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Robert has participated in numerous
group exhibitions from the early 1950’s when his career as a full time
artist started. Some of these exhibitions include: |
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1955 - Lidchi Gallery, Johannesburg, first
of over 20 solo exhibitions 1958 - Lidchi Gallery, Johannesburg 1959 - South African Association of Arts, Pretoria 1960 - Quadrennial Exhibition 1960 - Lidchi Gallery, Johannesburg 1961 - Gallery 10I, Johannesburg, joint exhibition with Ernst de Jongh 1970 - Several joint exhibitions with Jan Neethling, Lidchi Gallery, Johannesburg 1979 - Cape Town Biennial 1980 - Wits Lecturer Exhibition, Gertrude Posel Gallery, University of the Witwatersrand 1983 - Group exhibition, Carriage House Gallery 1984 - 85 Four Johannesburg Painters, a touring Exhibition 1985 - Tributaries, touring S.A and West Germany 1985 - Cape Town Triennial 1986 - Retrospective Exhibition, Grahamstown Festival 1987 - Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg 1987 - Joint exhibition with Deborah Bell and William Kentridge 1987 and 1988 Johannesburg Art Gallery, Vita Art Now 1989 - " Hogarth in Johannesburg ", University of the Witwatersrand 1990 - Life Vita Now Awards, Johannesburg 1990 - Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg 1991 - " Little Morals ", Cassirer Gallery, Johannesburg 1992 - IGI Life Vita Now Awards, Johannesburg Art Gallery 1992 - Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg 1993 - " Easing the Passing " Computer Graphics 1994 - " Displacement ", Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA 1995 - " Mayibue i Africa ", Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London 1995 - Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg 1995 - Africa 95, Whitechapel Gallery, London 1995 - " Panoramas of Passage ", Meridian International Centre, Washington, DC. 1997 - South African Artist Exhibition, Michel Luneau Gallery, France 1998 - Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg 1999 - <<REWIND>>FAST FORWARD, Van Reekum Museum, Appeldoorn, Netherlands 1999 - World Artists at the Millennium, United Nations, New York 2000 - Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg 2001- Joáo Ferreira Fine Art, Cape Town 2002 - Solo-Exhibition, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg |
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As one of South
Africa's oldest living and still practicing artists, Robert was
awarded numerous awards during his colourful career. 1955 - Best Young Artist Award - Transvaal Art of Today , Pretoria, Centenary Exhibition. 1986 - Vita Quarterly Award Winner 1995 - Helgaard Steyn Award for painting |
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His work is
represented in various collections in South Africa and in many major
private and corporate collections internationally. Johannesburg Art Gallery Pretoria Art Museum South African National Gallery VODACOM, Cape Town University of South Africa University of the Witwatersrand William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley Anglo American Collection Sandton Art Gallery |
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Robert can be described as a painter and graphic artist of figures and urban life. He works in oil, acrylic, tempera and in various graphic media. Although the human form is the subject matter of many of his paintings, it is colour, space and placing that plays a very important role in the works. The one cannot function without the other. |
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" For me, it is
very simple. The act of painting at a particular moment is able,
for reasons I neither understands, nor even try to
understand, to open up the whole world of my experience, my
thinking, my aspirations. " |
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