Howard Hodgkin became a prominent figure in British art in the 1970s for painting on wooden supports such as drawing boards and door frames instead of canvas. Using broad, gestural brushstrokes and a vivid palette of contrasting colors that emphasized the rectangular picture plane, Hodgkin defined painting as an object. While his early compositions have a collaged geometric flatness, Hodgkin’s later work, including etchings and aquatint prints, has increasingly incorporated more complex fluid patterning.