23 April 2017. Howard Hodgkin at the NPG

An interesting contrast to the Tate's Hockney. Hodgkin is, I think it fair to say, far less well known and this exhibition was by no means packed. His art is less accessible than Hockney's but for that reason is more interesting to me. He specialized in figurative work but usually executed his paintings from his memories of the subject, rather than having them sit in front of him. He thus laid down the emotional essence of the person and this led him to near abstraction. To be honest, I preferred the works with some reasonably recognizably human image but I very much liked the challenge he presented.