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  • Papers of Josef Paul Hodin
  • Working papers relating to artistic, cultural and historic figures
  • Else Meidner
  • Numbered correspondence from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin

Papers of Josef Paul Hodin

1885–2000s

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Josef Paul Hodin (1905-95) was an art critic and novelist. Born in Prague in 1905, he read Law at Charles University before leaving Czechoslovakia to pursue a literary career in Germany. Moving in artistic circles he met and befriended artists and spend time at their studios. The declining political situation in Europe presented an increasingly dangerous situation for Hodin and he was forced to leave Germany for Paris, and thence to his first wife Birgit Akesson's native Sweden in 1935. In Sweden Hodin became a respected art critic and regularly contributed articles to art reviews such as 'Konstrevy' and 'Ord och Bild', and published his first monographs on Swedish artists Ernst Josephson and Sven Erixson. By 1944, his marriage to Akesson had failed, and he came to England where he worked first as personal assistant to Jan Masaryk, the Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs, and later as press attaché to the Norwegian government in exile. In 1945 he married his second wife, Pamela Simms and from 1949-54 was director of studies and librarian of the Institute of Contemporary Arts. From this period onwards, Hodin's output of articles, lectures and books was prodigious. There were seminal books on aesthetics, including 'The Dilemma of Being Modern' (1956) and 'Modern Art and the Modern Mind' (1972), as well as important interpretations of Expressionism and German art from Munch to Schwitters; best seen in the biography of Oskar Kokoschka (1966), who was a close family friend. Hodin also championed emigre artists that had fled the Nazi regime as well as key European masters such as Emilio Greco and Giacomo Manzu. With a second home in Cornwall Hodin also took a special interest in what was happening in St Ives leading to some of the best books on Henry Moore (1956), Lynn Chadwick (1961), and Barbara Hepworth (1961).

This material has been selected to offer a broad picture of Hodin's prolific output and his unique approach to art criticism, an approach which depended on knowing his subjects personally and utilised all the resources of his cultural background. By these means Hodin endeavoured to look beyond the simple aesthetic judgment of art to investigate the spirit which created it.

This archive was catalogued and digitised as part of the Émigré Art Archives Project, generously funded by the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust. All translations courtesy of Jonathan Blower.

Collection Owner
Dr J. P. Hodin
Collection
Tate Archive
Acquisition
Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to Tate, 2006. Accrual presented by Annabel Hodin, 2020.
Reference
TGA 20062

407 objects in this collection

  • Papers of Josef Paul Hodin

    407 Objects

    • Correspondence by sender

      275 Objects

    • Fictional and poetic works

      1 Object

    • Working papers relating to artistic, cultural and historic figures

      106 Objects

      • Marc Chagall

        2 Objects

      • Oskar Kokoschka

        8 Objects

      • Else Meidner

        29 Objects

        • Correspondence from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin

          8 Objects

        • Numbered correspondence from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin

          17 Objects

        • Folder titled ‘Imaginary scenes’

          1 Object

        • Artist questionnaire and letters

          1 Object

        • Manuscripts and typescripts of articles

          1 Object

      • Ludwig Meidner

        2 Objects

      • Alfred Aberdam

        1 Object

        • Biographical notes

          1 Object

      • Anna-Eva Bergman

        1 Object

      • Jacob Bornfriend

        1 Object

      • Hans Werner Geerdts

        7 Objects

      • Friedrich Karl Gotsch

        1 Object

      • Marie-Louise von Motesiczky

        1 Object

      • Ben Nicholson

        44 Objects

      • Nína Tryggvadóttir

        6 Objects

      • Jannis Spyropoulos

        3 Objects

    • Working papers relating to general subjects

      24 Objects

    • Photographs

      1 Object

Title
Numbered correspondence from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin
Date
1954–70
Description
Contains an assortment of letters from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin. Hodin has numbered each letter and produced an inventory which sorts the letters by the subjects they address which include art, emigration and Judaism.
Reference
TGA 20062/7/128/2

Showing 17 objects

Letter from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin

Else Meidner, recipient: Dr J. P. Hodin
21 September 1970
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Letter from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin

Else Meidner, recipient: Dr J. P. Hodin
21 May 1959
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Letter from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin

Else Meidner, recipient: Dr J. P. Hodin
c.1960
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Letter from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin

Else Meidner, recipient: Dr J. P. Hodin
27 November 1968
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Letter from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin

Else Meidner, recipient: Dr J. P. Hodin
28 November 1968
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Letter from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin

Else Meidner, recipient: Dr J. P. Hodin
24 November 1968
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Letter from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin

Else Meidner, recipient: Dr J. P. Hodin
9 November 1969
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Letter from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin

Else Meidner, recipient: Dr J. P. Hodin
20 April 1969
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Letter from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin

Else Meidner, recipient: Dr J. P. Hodin
5 May 1969
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Letter from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin

Else Meidner, recipient: Dr J. P. Hodin
30 March 1969
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Letter from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin

Else Meidner, recipient: Dr J. P. Hodin
29 January 1970
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Letter from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin

Else Meidner, recipient: Dr J. P. Hodin
1 August 1969
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Letter from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin

Else Meidner, recipient: Dr J. P. Hodin
10 January 1970
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Poem by Else Meidner titled ‘Deceased Dearly Beloved’

Else Meidner
c.1970
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Poem by Else Meidner titled ‘Eternal Farewell’

Else Meidner
c.1970
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Letter from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin

Else Meidner, recipient: Dr J. P. Hodin
9 June 1973
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Letter from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin

Else Meidner, recipient: Dr J. P. Hodin
7 October 1973
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