A cacophony of riotous colour, Howard Hodgkin’s A Bust of Paul Levy from 1976-77 is aglow with vivid swathes of iridescent yellows, bejewelled blues and sumptuous emerald green. Depicting a quasi-figurative portrait of Paul Levy in the guise of a playfully pink torso, the present work is a visually vibrant but innately intimate illustration of a close connection.

A food critic, writer, columnist and successful author, and heralded for coining the universally known phrase ‘foodie’, Levy rose to prominence in the 1980s following the publication of his column; significantly the first food column in the United Kingdom devoid of a recipe. Throughout his celebrated career, Levy has won many British and American food writing and journalism prizes, including two commendations in the British Press Awards, in 1985 and 1987. His interests are not limited to food and literature but encapsulate all the arts. For a decade Levy wrote a weekly column on the arts for The Wall Street Journal and was a regular contributor to the ‘Personal Journal’ pages where he discussed his love of arts and culture. A close friend to the artist, Hodgkin painted Levy’s portrait on two occasions, one in 1976-80 and the other, A Bust of Paul Levy in 1976-77.

In the present work, the Hodgkin’s palette operates as a kind of visual encyclopaedia of raw emotion and guttural force. Levy commented how the artist “has a real genius for suggesting depth and perception with what appear to be (but of course, aren’t) simple swipes of paint. He’s always been able to capture the feeling of looking out of (or into) a window, onto a landscape, a garden or into another room, or looking at a stage” (Paul Levy, 'Home on the Range with Hodgkin', An Arts Journal Blog, 8 July 2010, online). Furthermore, the painted frame is the hallmark of Hodgkin’s aesthetic: it signifies both a literal and metaphorical overspill of paint and emotion that cannot be contained. In exceeding the parameters of his surfaces, the artist provocatively and emotively undermines traditional modes of representation, which position the frame as a perspectival window into an illusory realm. The artist often thought of his ornately painted frames as the protectors of his sentient paintings: “The more evanescent the emotions I want to convey,” he wrote, “the thicker the panel, the heavier the framing, the more elaborate the border, so that this delicate thing will remain protected and intact” (Howard Hodgkin cited in: Marla Price, Howard Hodgkin: The Complete Paintings Catalogue Raisonne, London 2006, p. 33). Enveloped in a blazing aura deep azure, A Bust of Paul Levy, then, is the very embodiment of Hodgkin’s transitory, reified sent.mes nts.

Hodgkin’s paintings occupy an impalpable space that exists between figuration and abstraction. Though his suggestive titles allude to temporalities, topographies or people, his compositions remain loose and enigmatic, with defined claritys always just out of reach. “I think to speak to as many people as possible [through my art] is not a vain ambition. The kind of sensual/romantic/passionate/emotional feelings that artists have, do appeal to people. The only way an artist can communicate with the world at large is on the level of feeling. I think that the function of the artist is to practise his art to such a level that, like the soul leaving the body, it comes out into the world and affects other people” (Howard Hodgkin interviewed in 1978 cited in: Exh. Cat., London, Tate Britain (and travelling), Howard Hodgkin, 2006, p. 181). Indeed, much of the poetic force of Hodgkin’s practice is his ability to conjure, in the very same moment, a myriad of memories, both personal and collects ive, universal and unique.