In 1990 and 1991, Howard Hodgkin made a cycle of complex works on paper. The series was called Indian Waves and each one evokes a specific memory of India, especially its landscape and climate, which has played a formative role in Hodgkin’s development as an artist since his first visit in 1964. Each work was given a title to describe its subject. Together these titles evoke the scope of the Indian Waves, ranging through times of day and weather events (see appendix). The works were made in collaboration with the artist’s printmakers Jack Shirreff and Andrew Smith at 107 Workshop in Wiltshire, and they consist of both carborundum printed and hand-painted gouache elements. The Indian Waves were printed with two carborundum plates: one of blue, which filled the lower half of the sheet, and one of green, which filled the upper half. In response to this underlying pattern, Hodgkin improvised a gouache painting using a monochrome palette of prismatic colours. The dominant hue of Sunshine is yellow. Other works in the series were painted in black, white, red, yellow, orange, green and blue. In each case the colours register the titular subject: Night Falls includes a wide arcing brushstroke of black; the midground of On the Beach, Mumbai is an oceanic blue. The Indian Waves remained in Shirreff’s studio until his retirement in 2011 when they were rediscovered and subsequently exhibited at Gagosian Gallery, London, in 2014.

The paper support provided a concrete geographical reference for the Indian Waves series, and the provenance of the paper complements the subject-matter of the works. Hodgkin purchased the stock of paper himself on one of his many visits to India and brought it back to England. Khadi paper is a type of handmade rag paper produced across the Indian subcontinent. It is unsized and therefore has greater absorbency, and the manufacturing process causes subtle inconsistencies of texture and shape that contribute to the individuality of each sheet. Each of Hodgkin’s Indian Waves has a subtly different shape: the outwardly bowed edges are irregular and uneven.

The series title ‘Indian Waves’ recalled another series that Hodgkin had made in Ahmedabad, India, in 1978: Indian Leaves. The artist considered the two series in parallel and the logic of Indian Waves followed several key principles established by the earlier series, notwithstanding differences of style and technique between the two cycles. In 1982, Hodgkin described the circumstances and motivation for Indian Leaves:

"[…] I was remembering images from all my previous trips to India. The subject matter is very straightforward. Many of the pictures were vignettes of things I’d seen, like a concrete wall with garlands of flowers hanging from it; vistas of the sky and horizon; a train crossing the distant landscape, and so on. They are a kind of anthology of Indian images, and also a sampler of all the different kinds of language I use in my paintings, but used in an almost simplistic way."

He also noted that ‘I have always thought of them as the leaves of a book—that they’re all one work.’ In a catalogue essay accompanying Indian Waves, Shanay Jhaveri explained that the same was true of that later series: ‘Each of the pictures in this series carries its own title. But for Hodgkin they comprise a single work, Indian Waves.’

*

The technical procedures used to create Sunshine and the other Indian Waves was described by Andrew Smith in Gagosian’s Indian Waves catalogue of 2014:

"[It involved] two aluminium plates finely ground and degreased, onto which Howard applied a paste made from carborundum powder mixed with a bonding agent and water, using brushes and his hands to form wave-like marks on one plate and broad hill/sky forms on the second plate. This method is referred to as ‘carborundum printing’. These two painted forms were then left to set solid; this structure was then inked up and wiped down with oil-based inks every time it was printed. Each repeated mark on each Khadi sheet was printed separately, the captured gestural mark printed in ultramarine blue for the waves and emerald green for the hill/sky form.

"Once dried, Howard mixed bowls of gouache—cadmium yellow, cadmium red, zinc white, ivory black, ultramarine blue, cadmium orange, and green, an egg tempera Vert Véronèse, which he then painted onto the various printed Khadi sheets. At the time, Vert Véronèse was banned in England, so, when our supplies ran out, I had to go to France to buy more from Sennelier."

 
Appendix
List of Indian Waves

This is the list of thirty works included in Howard Hodgkin’s Indian Waves exhibition at Gagosian in 2014. An illustrated online record of these works is provided by the Howard Hodgkin estate’s website: https://howard-hodgkin.com/gallery/indian-waves.

1. Party, 1990–91, 69.2 x 91. 4 cm
2. Darkness, 1990–91, 70.5 x 91.8 cm
3. Turbulent Waters, 1990–91, 71.4 x 92.7 cm
4. Mumbai Dawn, 1990–91, 70.2 x 92.1 cm
5. Mumbai Dusk, 1990–91, 73 x 92.1 cm
6. Red Rainbow, 1990–91, 71.1 x 90.8 cm
7. Night Falls, 1990–91, 73 x 92.7 cm
8. Yellow Rainbow, 1990–91, 71.1 x 90.5 cm
9. Black Rainbow, 1990–91, 71.8 x 91.1 cm
10. Marine Drive, Dusk, 1990–91, 72.4 x 90.5 cm
11. Waterfront, 1990–91, 70.2 x 90.5 cm
12. Orange Sunset, 1990–91, 73.7 x 92.7 cm
13. Goanese, 1990–91, 72.1 x 90.5 cm
14. Natural Phenomenon, 1990–91, 70.2 x 91.1 cm
15. Sea Fog, 1990–91, 73 x 92.4 cm
16. Surf, 1990–91,72.4 x 90.5 cm
17. Red Arches, 1990–91, 72.7 x 91.4 cm
18. Storm in Goa, 1990–91, 72.7 x 91.8 cm
19. Border, 1990–91, 72.7 x 91.8 cm
20. Marine Drive, 1990–91, 70.2 x 90.5 cm
21. Breakwater, 1990–91, 71.4 x 92.1 cm
22. Another Rainbow, 1990–91, 74.3 x 93.7 cm
23. Storm at Sea, 1990–91, 71.4 x 92.1 cm
24. Sunshine, 1990–91, 70.8 x 90.5 cm
25. On the Beach, Mumbai, 1990–91, 74 x 94 cm
26. Hill Station, 1990–91, 71.4 x 92.4 cm
27. Mumbai Wedding, 1990–91, 74 x 92.1 cm
28. Waves, 1990–91, 71.1 x 89.5 cm
29. Sun on Wave, 1990–91, 72.4 x 90.8 cm
30. Chowpatty Beach, 1990–91, 73.7 x 92.4 cm