Lot Essay
Accustomed to Hodgkin's use of more intimate titles alluding to warm interiors, supportive patrons or exotic locations, Menswear would appear a rather impersonal starting point. It is precisely this confusion, however, that leads us to a deeper understanding of Hodgkin's growth as a painter. During the early 1980's Hodgkin began to come to terms with the complexities of Time, the inability to represent the precise emotions and intimacy of a given moment, the reality that the reincarnated image never entirely represents the way things were.
As is demonstrated in Menswear (1980-1985), Hodgkin became aware that what survives is a sense of the memories, a glimmering of their significance that might strike a chord of recognition in those who look at his paintings. Hence, Menswear and the illusion of a daydreaming passer-by glimpsing a lost memory reflected in a department store window, could not be more representative of this new understanding. Whereas Hodgkin is able to portray on the surface the physical image of a department store, the memory itself can only be alluded at in the patterns beyond the frame; he can only invite us to the intimacy of the past moment.
In Menswear the invitation to find the moment does not just come from the subject matter but is now built in to a new pictorial language. The attempt at Intimise has its roots in Vuillard. Hodgkin himself admits that his 1970's portraits or interiors were rather autonomous and flat, hence in the early 1980's he began to move close in. Through the use of limited but more intense and warmer colours - luscious reds, orangy pinks and turquoises and more splendid but less decorative patterns - one is drawn irresistibly to imagine the richness of the moment hinted at. At the same time, through the use of space-making devices, such as the large area of blocked red paint, Hodgkin produces an open door in a flat surface, making us think that there is more to the memory than is recorded. The pillar of paint on the left which is obscuring our vision also reminds us that the artist is struggling to represent a recollection. As a result, the painting emerges out of the tension between what is seen and what is hidden or obscured, between what is there and what is missing.
In Menswear image and frame become the same thing. A dense border of camouflage greens turns the painting into a view through and beyond, lending the picture not only its perspective but its intimacy, leading us into the secret world. The frame not only helps one to make the leap from the world in front of the painting to the world within, but acts as a metamphor for the artist's struggle to get from one time to another; to remember a moment not part of the present time but between recollection and loss.
As is demonstrated in Menswear (1980-1985), Hodgkin became aware that what survives is a sense of the memories, a glimmering of their significance that might strike a chord of recognition in those who look at his paintings. Hence, Menswear and the illusion of a daydreaming passer-by glimpsing a lost memory reflected in a department store window, could not be more representative of this new understanding. Whereas Hodgkin is able to portray on the surface the physical image of a department store, the memory itself can only be alluded at in the patterns beyond the frame; he can only invite us to the intimacy of the past moment.
In Menswear the invitation to find the moment does not just come from the subject matter but is now built in to a new pictorial language. The attempt at Intimise has its roots in Vuillard. Hodgkin himself admits that his 1970's portraits or interiors were rather autonomous and flat, hence in the early 1980's he began to move close in. Through the use of limited but more intense and warmer colours - luscious reds, orangy pinks and turquoises and more splendid but less decorative patterns - one is drawn irresistibly to imagine the richness of the moment hinted at. At the same time, through the use of space-making devices, such as the large area of blocked red paint, Hodgkin produces an open door in a flat surface, making us think that there is more to the memory than is recorded. The pillar of paint on the left which is obscuring our vision also reminds us that the artist is struggling to represent a recollection. As a result, the painting emerges out of the tension between what is seen and what is hidden or obscured, between what is there and what is missing.
In Menswear image and frame become the same thing. A dense border of camouflage greens turns the painting into a view through and beyond, lending the picture not only its perspective but its intimacy, leading us into the secret world. The frame not only helps one to make the leap from the world in front of the painting to the world within, but acts as a metamphor for the artist's struggle to get from one time to another; to remember a moment not part of the present time but between recollection and loss.