Breaking The Cycle - Marcus Hodge - Artist in Focus - December 2019

India,  a country with an extensive political and cultural history along with a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society has inspired artists for millennia.  The region has always produced its own local artists who skilfully pursued an innovative approach in art making, presenting an aesthetic which has been globally admired.

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Nonetheless, the nation’s ancient traditions and outlandish rituals, along with vibrant colours, surprising materials, penetrating scents and constant noise levels provide endless sources of stimuli. For instance, the artists Edouard Baribeaud, Anthony Gormley and Howard Hodgkin have spent time in India to enrich their creative practice.  

Marcus Hodge a successful British painter well-known for his consummate portraiture and accomplished  equestrian canvases, travels frequently to the subcontinent.  In 2016,  he begun to artistically explore his lifelong fascination with the world’s largest democracy to develop a new painterly style. Moving forward meant that Hodge had to abandon the traditional methods of his craft. It took a great deal of courage, knowing that most collectors do not approve of artists who dramatically alter their work. Nevertheless, he recognised in order to convey his gathered impressions and insights in a distinct manner - a radical shift was required.

The Gateway and Tantric and series, where energetic strokes embrace densely worked hues, claiming presence and void, were first shown in November 2017 at Roundtree Tyron, London, achieving much public attention. Hodge’s latest exhibition Breaking the Cycle,  at Art Moorhouse, London, is an account of his most recent visit to the holy city of Varanasi. Delving into one of the country’s oldest ceremony  - the funeral procession – paying honour to the departed. Culturally, India’s society is far closer connected to death compared to communities in the western world, where demise is often taboo.  For Hodge and his paintings it represents a symbol of a new beginning - a blend of beauty, intellectual depth and spiritual meaning -.