The Winter 2021 Issue of Art New Zealand featured a four page exhibition review by art writer Richard Wolfe of Frances Hodgkins and Her Circle.
In Frances Hodgkins and Her Circle artworks by Frances Hodgkins were exhibited alongside pieces by her family members, students and artist friends. The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue of extensive essays, drawing a map between the many characters whose artistic careers where influenced by Frances Hodgkins and who intern also supported her during he lifetime, including essays on John Piper, Isabel Field, Girolarmo Nerli and Beatrice Seddon.
In his review Richard Wolfe says:
In 2020, 132 years after its public debut, Marguerites was included in an Auckland exhibition celebrating the community of artists centred on Frances Hodgkins. In addition to four works by Hodgkins herself, this selection included 15 by other practitioners, mainly women, who were born in New Zealand and who had a preference for watercolours. All were associated with and supported Hodgkins in various degrees and capacities, collectively representing an extensive network of personal and professional relationships.
Hodgkins died on 13 May 1947, and a month later the English Listener published a tribute by Gorer, who wrote that at the age of 70 she had 'reached the height of her powers', which he believed was an 'unparalleled development in the history of art. A few months earlier she had given him a painting of his cottage, with flowering cherries and pear trees. She expressed her satisfaction with the work, almost the last she completed, noting 'I think I've got it', and then, 'There's growth, and spring, and hope; do you feel it?"
Frances Hodgkins and Her Circle. Jonathan Grant Galleries. October - December 2020.
The online exhibition can still be viewed on the gallery website here.
Copies of Art New Zealand can be ordered here.