Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.


Josef Paul Hodin art historian

Joseph Paul Hodin was born in Prague, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic) into a German-Czech Jewish family on 17 August 1905, but spent much of his early adult years in Europe, fleeing Paris for Stockholm before the German invasion. In 1944 he travelled to Britain as press attaché to the Norwegian government in exile and as an adviser to the Czechoslovak foreign office in London and was appointed the first Librarian and Director of Studies of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in 1949, a position he held until 1954. Hodin was a keen critic of postwar British art, as well as a supporter of émigré artists, and was the author of monographs on Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, and potter, Bernard Leach, among many other publications.

Born: 1905 Prague, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic/Czechia)

Died: 1995 London, England

Year of Migration to the UK: 1944

Other name/s: Joseph Paul Hodin, J. P. Hodin


Biography

Art historian, critic and author, Joseph Paul Hodin was born in Prague on 17 August 1905 into a German-Czechoslovak Jewish family. His father, a photographer, insisted he study Law at Charles University, Prague. However, after graduating in 1929 he studied history of art and culture at the Academies of Art in Dresden (1931) and Berlin (1932–3) respectively. In Dresden, he regularly met with artists at cafés Zunst, Kaiser and Rumpelmayer, discussing art, philosophy, music and dance; he also visited the studios of Otto Dix (1891–1969), Otto Griebel (1895–1972), Hermann Richter (1875–1941) and his childhood friend, painter Paul Berger-Bergner (1904–1978), whom he later supported as a refugee in England. From 1933-35 he spent two unhappy years in exile in Paris, working as a reader for publishing house Orbis, escaping before the German occupation and immigrating to Stockholm, where he joined the Czechoslovak Resistance movement. He wrote for Swedish art periodicals and his first books on art (including Sven Erixson, 1940; Edvard Munch, 1948 and Isaac Grünewald, 1949) were published in Swedish.

In 1944 Hodin travelled to London, as press attaché to the Norwegian government-in-exile and as adviser to the Czechoslovak foreign office, remaining after the end of the war. In March 1949 he was appointed Librarian and Director of Studies at the recently-established Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), a position he held until 1954. At the invitation of Professor Anthony Blunt, Hodin lectured at the Courtauld Institute of Art in 1949, giving talks at the Arts Council and the ICA the same year. In April 1951 he enrolled at the Courtauld, intending to complete his doctorate, the same year in which he presented ‘A Course in Contemporary Art. An Analysis of its Basis and its Place in Art History’ at the ICA, discussing continental modernism and the work of Munch, Paul Klee, Emil Nolde, Max Beckmann and Oskar Kokoschka, among others. Although he did not openly express his Judaism, in the early 1950s he presented several talks at the Ben Uri Art Society, culminating in 1955 in a University of London Extension Course entitled 'The Visual Arts and Judaism', in which he championed émigré artists. These included Fritz Feigl and Jacob Bornfriend, among others, from the so-called Continental British School (a term he coined), whom he knew as personal friends, living nearby in northwest London. Close contact with artists was key to Hodin's often unorthodox methodology.

Postwar, Hodin participated regularly in the International Congress of Art Criticism and Aesthetics organised by the Association Internationale des Critiques d’art (AICA). According to Vladimir Vanek, Hodin’s biographer, at the eighth congress in Oxford, his motion allowing immigrant artists to participate in international exhibitions was accepted, an achievement that affected the careers of émigré artists in the UK and created an international precedent (Alexandra Lazar, J.P. Hodin: A Bridge Between Europe and Britain, Tate Papers, 2013). Hodin continued to champion immigrant artists, including Erich Kahn, Bornfriend, and Ludwig and Else Meidner (who lived nearby on Finchley Road and whom he had unexpectedly met in 1953). Hodin’s conversations with the couple and his subsequent writings, led to wider recognition of their work, though after Ludwig's return to West Germany in 1953, Else's reputation remained sadly neglected, despite Hodin's unwavering support, including facilitating two later solo shows at Ben Uri (1964 and 1972), and donation of a work to Tate.

In 1954 Hodin won first international prize for art criticism at the Venice Biennale for his work on Surrealism and the painting of Francis Bacon and in 1956, he wrote catalogue essays for the Biennale, presenting four young British artists: John Bratby, Edward Middleditch, Jack Smith and Derrick Greaves. Throughout the 1950s, he was an editor for Paris-based Prisme des Arts, and in 1956 became co-editor of Belgian art periodical Quadrum, the year he published his work of aesthetics, The Dilemma of Being Modern. On Hodin’s 60th birthday in 1965, a tribute seminar was held at the Goethe Institute in London. The resulting volume contains specially-written critical texts by 17 artists, art historians and critics as an homage to Hodin’s work on international and émigré art (Lazar, 2013). Hodin was also a keen critic of postwar British art. Based in London and Cornwall with his English second wife, Pamela Simms, Hodin interacted with St Ives artists, writing monographs on artists, Ben Nicholson (1957), Henry Moore (1958), and Barbara Hepworth (1961), and on potter, Bernard Leach. Oskar Kokoschka: A Biography was one of six texts he wrote on the artist in 1966. A second book on aesthetics Modern Art and the Modern Mind appeared in 1972. Joseph Hodin died in London, England on 6 December 1995. His papers are held by Tate Archive and he has been subject of research events at Tate Britain, 'Émigré Voices: Art Writers in Britain' (2013) and 'Émigré Art Archives' (2023).

Related books

  • Alexandra Lazar, J.P. Hodin: A Bridge Between Europe and Britain, Tate Papers, 2013
  • Sandra Higgins, From the Library of J. P. Hodin (London: Sandra Higgins, 2005)
  • J.P. Hodin, Edvard Munch (New York: Praeger, 1972)
  • J.P. Hodin, Modern Art and the Modern Mind (New York: Noonday Press, 1972)
  • J.P. Hodin, Emilio Greco: Sculpture & Drawings (Bath: Adams and Dart, 1971)
  • J.P. Hodin, Figurative Art Since 1945 (London: Thames and Hudson, 1971)
  • J.P. Hodin, Bernard Leach: A Potter's Work (London: Evelyn, Adams & Mackay, 1967)
  • J.P. Hodin, Oskar Kokoschka: A Biography (New York Graphic Society, 1966)
  • Walter Kern (ed.), J. P. Hodin, European Critic: Essays, (London, 1965)
  • J.P. Hodin, Barbara Hepworth (London: Lund Humphries, 1961)
  • J.P Hodin, The Portrait of the Artist, Art News and Review, 2 August 1958
  • J.P. Hodin, Henry More: Modern Sculptors Series (London: A. Zwemmer Ltd, 1958)
  • J.P. Hodin, Ben Nicholson: The Meaning of his Art (London: Tiranti, 1957)
  • J.P. Hodin, The Dilemma of Being Modern (New York: Noonday Press, 1956)

Public collections

Related organisations

  • Arts Council (lecturer)
  • British Section of the International Association of Art Critics (President)
  • British Society of Aesthetics (Executive Committee)
  • Courtauld Institute (lecturer, student)
  • Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) (Director of studies, Librarian)
  • Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism (Editorial Council)
  • Quadrum (Co-Editor)
  • University of Uppsala (honorary PhD)
  • Venice Biennale (prize-winner)
  • Vienna University (Honorary Professor)

Related web links

  Josef Paul Hodin
   
Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Josef Paul Hodin]

Ben Uri library

Publications related to [Josef Paul Hodin] in the Ben Uri Library