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Lot Essay
“Figures created by Hodges are made sharper, and more haunting, not because we see those things in their eyes, we see it in their bodies, their postures, the endless desire for humans not to be alone, and to connect” Hilton Als
(H. Als, press release, Reggie Burrows Hodges, Karma, New York, 2021).
Reggie Burrows Hodges’s For the Greater Good: Orange is a commanding painting that encapsulates the three key themes of the artist’s celebrated body of work: figuration, memory, and social consciousness. Encompassing both aesthetic beauty and conceptual depth, Hodges’s paintings capture fleeting moments, but ones that are filled with layers of meaning. His unique way of depicting the human figure prompts extended consideration, as the viewer seeks out both the physical and metaphysical identity of his subjects. As the critic Hilton Als writes, “Figures created by Hodges are made sharper, and more haunting, not because we see those things in their eyes, we see it in their bodies, their postures, the endless desire for humans not to be alone, and to connect. To that Hodges adds all that wonderful blackness” (H. Als, press release, Reggie Burrows Hodges, Karma, New York, 2021).
Out of the expansive black ground that constitutes one of the central elements of this 2021 canvas, a group of figures emerges. One, on the left, appears to be holding an umbrella, shielding their charge (in the center of the composition) from the extremes of the sun. Another figure, on the right, stands tall in a dark suit with only the white sliver of his shirt reflecting the light as it peeks through the lapels of his jacket to distinguish him from the background. In between the two figures a dark silhouette suggests a third figure, barely legible, seated with a tennis racket resting at his feet. Behind them, the rows of painterly daubs can be read as the faces of the onlooking crowd.
Hodges begins all his paintings with a black ground, a color that is of utmost importance to the artist. “I start with a black ground [as a way] of dealing with blackness’s totality,” Hodges has said. “I’m painting an environment in which the figures emerge from negative space… If you see my paintings in person, you’ll look at the depth.” (H. Als, “’In the Service of Others’: The Art of Reggie Burrows Hodges,” The New York Review of Books, March 22, 2021, online [accessed: 10/27/2025]). In Hodges’s mind, in paintings such as the present work, the blackness is not only equated with depth of field, but also with the depth of a person, as what we feel about a painting is often determined as much by what we can’t see as what we can.
Like many of Hodges’s most significant paintings, the subject of For the Greater Good: Orange is a tennis match. The artist has a strong affinity to the sport having attended the University of Kansas on a tennis scholarship. In addition, he worked as a professional coach on the US Tennis Association/International Tennis Federation Pro Circuit. Although many of his figures lack identifying features, they often appear engaged in sporting activities such as track and field events, including tennis. In his compositions, he builds a grammar of tiled floors, wallpaper and tennis courts, patterned robes and sports uniforms: forms are affected loosely, dancing with the evidence of their brush work in the presence of blackness.
Just as, in the nineteenth century, Édouard Vuillard and the Nabis maintained that art was a synthesis of metaphor and symbolism that was manifested in everyday life, Reggie Burrows Hodges explores these ideas in the context of the twenty-first century. He evocatively describes his artistic inspiration as being “The study of moments and translating the essence of them through color, figuration, abstraction, and various techniques of mark making…I'm interested in intersecting an internal experience and symbolizing that in my work in order to present a view of my personal heritage and journey” (R. B. Hodges, quoted in “Reggie Burrows Hodges, Joan Mitchell Foundation, online [accessed: 10/27/2025]). In this respect Hodges’s works are rewarded by periods of prolonged examination: examination of recollection and reality; of people and the systems they inhabit; and of the juxtaposed swatches of color and blackness.
(H. Als, press release, Reggie Burrows Hodges, Karma, New York, 2021).
Reggie Burrows Hodges’s For the Greater Good: Orange is a commanding painting that encapsulates the three key themes of the artist’s celebrated body of work: figuration, memory, and social consciousness. Encompassing both aesthetic beauty and conceptual depth, Hodges’s paintings capture fleeting moments, but ones that are filled with layers of meaning. His unique way of depicting the human figure prompts extended consideration, as the viewer seeks out both the physical and metaphysical identity of his subjects. As the critic Hilton Als writes, “Figures created by Hodges are made sharper, and more haunting, not because we see those things in their eyes, we see it in their bodies, their postures, the endless desire for humans not to be alone, and to connect. To that Hodges adds all that wonderful blackness” (H. Als, press release, Reggie Burrows Hodges, Karma, New York, 2021).
Out of the expansive black ground that constitutes one of the central elements of this 2021 canvas, a group of figures emerges. One, on the left, appears to be holding an umbrella, shielding their charge (in the center of the composition) from the extremes of the sun. Another figure, on the right, stands tall in a dark suit with only the white sliver of his shirt reflecting the light as it peeks through the lapels of his jacket to distinguish him from the background. In between the two figures a dark silhouette suggests a third figure, barely legible, seated with a tennis racket resting at his feet. Behind them, the rows of painterly daubs can be read as the faces of the onlooking crowd.
Hodges begins all his paintings with a black ground, a color that is of utmost importance to the artist. “I start with a black ground [as a way] of dealing with blackness’s totality,” Hodges has said. “I’m painting an environment in which the figures emerge from negative space… If you see my paintings in person, you’ll look at the depth.” (H. Als, “’In the Service of Others’: The Art of Reggie Burrows Hodges,” The New York Review of Books, March 22, 2021, online [accessed: 10/27/2025]). In Hodges’s mind, in paintings such as the present work, the blackness is not only equated with depth of field, but also with the depth of a person, as what we feel about a painting is often determined as much by what we can’t see as what we can.
Like many of Hodges’s most significant paintings, the subject of For the Greater Good: Orange is a tennis match. The artist has a strong affinity to the sport having attended the University of Kansas on a tennis scholarship. In addition, he worked as a professional coach on the US Tennis Association/International Tennis Federation Pro Circuit. Although many of his figures lack identifying features, they often appear engaged in sporting activities such as track and field events, including tennis. In his compositions, he builds a grammar of tiled floors, wallpaper and tennis courts, patterned robes and sports uniforms: forms are affected loosely, dancing with the evidence of their brush work in the presence of blackness.
Just as, in the nineteenth century, Édouard Vuillard and the Nabis maintained that art was a synthesis of metaphor and symbolism that was manifested in everyday life, Reggie Burrows Hodges explores these ideas in the context of the twenty-first century. He evocatively describes his artistic inspiration as being “The study of moments and translating the essence of them through color, figuration, abstraction, and various techniques of mark making…I'm interested in intersecting an internal experience and symbolizing that in my work in order to present a view of my personal heritage and journey” (R. B. Hodges, quoted in “Reggie Burrows Hodges, Joan Mitchell Foundation, online [accessed: 10/27/2025]). In this respect Hodges’s works are rewarded by periods of prolonged examination: examination of recollection and reality; of people and the systems they inhabit; and of the juxtaposed swatches of color and blackness.