Library and Archive Reading Rooms
View by appointment- Created by
- Erich Kahn 1904–1979
- Recipient
- Dr J. P. Hodin
- Title
- Letter from Erich Kahn to J.P. Hodin
- Date
- 25 May 1967
- Format
- Document - correspondence
- 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 20062/4/188/52
Description
[Translation/transcription]
1 Albert Studios
20 Albert Street
NW1
25 May 1967
Many thanks for the [illegible] letter and the many other things you’ve taken in hand for me. Now you’ve gone one better by schlepping my folio of etchings over to OK, and OK has written a letter of recommendation to Apollo for his little brother. I’m sure he meant well, and who likes working without appreciation and encouragement, or who else but a hopeless introvert?! Well, the etchings (drypoints for the most part) are a by-product of my life’s work and, as is so often the case, for me they are an essential part of it, albeit not the quintessence (they’re too small to attract much attention). They are original works (it takes a lot of patience and good luck to get just two or three prints), I made them without any intent or desire for recognition and have always refused to sell them (though I gave some to friends as tokens of appreciation). Only now, looking to the future with some apprehension, I want to be sure they don’t fall into Barbara’s hands, and so I’m looking for adoptive parents for them (I don’t like to part with them, but it must be so). It was for this reason that I asked you whether you could offer them to the department of prints and drawings in Stuttgart if need be (the British Museum wouldn’t sully its fingers with such things). The collection is finished; it’s unlikely that any more etchings will be added. I note that OK recommends me only as a printmaker, and even then only in forma pauperis. That can’t possibly help me, and I fear it was intended as feint praise, what they call ‘keeping one in one’s place’. A bad job for you. I am sorry you went to all that trouble. I was just curious to hear what sort of reaction they would get from OK. Perhaps there was none.
Must get this letter off. If I don’t see you before you leave, best of luck in Germany. I haven’t been able to smoke your cigars yet; my throat still isn’t better.
Must paint four paintings for Ben Uri, in a couple of days. I too am a painter.
Kind regards to you both,
Your old Erich
Archive context
- Papers of Josef Paul Hodin TGA 20062 (407)
-
- Correspondence by sender TGA 20062/4 (275)
-
- Letters and postcards from Erich Kahn to J.P. and Pamela Hodin TGA 20062/4/188 (111)
-
- Letter from Erich Kahn to J.P. Hodin TGA 20062/4/188/52