Howard Hodgkin was born on August 6, 1932, in London. He studied at the Camberwell School of art in London from 1949 to 1954. He then studied at the Bath Academy of Art in Corsham, where he subsequently lectured until 1966. That year, Hodgkin received a position at the Chelsea School of Art in London, where he taught until 1972. Hodgkin represented Great Britain at the Biennale in Venice in 1977. With his strong, vivid paintings and drawings, he roused international interest. The Tate Gallery in London put on the first retrospective of Hodgkin's works in 1985, and in the same year, the artist was awarded the Turner Prize. In 1997, Hodgkin received the Shakespeare Prize and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Oxford University in 2000.