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Lot Essay
‘The surface of In the Green Room … seems to break out in large, freely applied brushmarks of scintillating orange paint and due to their joyful intensity, the resulting surface gives an impression of freedom’ (Norman Rosenthal)
In the Green Room (1984-1986) is a vibrant and joyful painting by Howard Hodgkin. Spanning almost two metres across, it is among the largest works he had made at this point in his career. It dates from a period of rising acclaim for the artist, who represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale of 1984 and was awarded the Turner Prize in 1985. It also captures the dawn of a great love. Its title refers to the Cornwall living room of the writer Anthony Peattie, whose walls Hodgkin painted green shortly after they met in 1984. The two would remain partners for the rest of Hodgkin’s life. The setting is conveyed in the painting with green triangles which flash beneath a screen of fiery orange brushmarks. Set within a cobalt blue border, light and darker zones create a sense of receding space. On top, two bold shapes—one in shades of grey, the other blushed magenta and white—are angled towards one another. It is a vision of love from an artist who, he explained, painted ‘representational pictures of emotional states’ (H. Hodgkin, quoted in E. Juncosa (ed.), Writers on Howard Hodgkin, London 2006, p. 104). In 1987, the painting was included in the major group exhibition British Art in the 20th Century: The Modern Movement at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Hodgkin’s works are intimate, autobiographical and deeply evocative of places and people, while bearing little pictorial relation to the visible world. Typically painted on wooden supports and incorporating painted frames or borders, they are theatres of memory, often suggesting views through or into interior spaces. Hodgkin arrived at his mature idiom in the 1970s, following early works that bore the influence of Pop and Abstract Expressionism. Across the years his colours and forms would be informed by friendship, romance, conversation and travel—particularly in Italy and India, which both had a profound impact on his outlook. While Hodgkin remained a deeply private individual, his paintings’ surfaces, atmospheres and chromatic temperatures trace a life of emotional and sensory richness.
The long gestation period of In the Green Room was not unusual. Hodgkin often felt the need to work on a single picture for several years until it ‘returned’ the memory that sparked its creation, almost as if the painting were a magical object. Curator Norman Rosenthal wrote of this work that its surface ‘seems to break out in large, freely applied brushmarks of scintillating orange paint and due to their joyful intensity, the resulting surface gives an impression of freedom. Yet Hodgkin has worked on the picture for at least three years, adjusting the relationship of one section to another. The effect of spontaneity is achieved by controlled and painstaking effort which finally results in a composition which combines logic and sensuality in a unique way’ (N. Rosenthal, ‘Three Painters of this Time: Hodgkin, Kitaj and Morley’, in British Art in the 20th Century: The Modern Movement, exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London 1987, p. 382).
Every one of Hodgkin’s paintings seeks to reincarnate an aspect of his past experience. At the same time, their language of blurs, dapples and smears—which has frequently drawn comparison with the Intimist interiors of Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard—depicts the ultimate impossibility of fixing or retrieving a memory. In the Green Room offers a view into a remembered space, while its orange daubs keep it just beyond reach. Yet the work’s sensuality and depth of feeling are unmistakable. Hodgkin often abstracted individuals to blocks or bars of paint, and here the grey and pink shapes—one appearing more withdrawn, the other lit up like a beacon—might be seen to capture aspects of the burgeoning romance between him and Peattie, which would blossom into a lifetime of love.
In the Green Room (1984-1986) is a vibrant and joyful painting by Howard Hodgkin. Spanning almost two metres across, it is among the largest works he had made at this point in his career. It dates from a period of rising acclaim for the artist, who represented Great Britain at the Venice Biennale of 1984 and was awarded the Turner Prize in 1985. It also captures the dawn of a great love. Its title refers to the Cornwall living room of the writer Anthony Peattie, whose walls Hodgkin painted green shortly after they met in 1984. The two would remain partners for the rest of Hodgkin’s life. The setting is conveyed in the painting with green triangles which flash beneath a screen of fiery orange brushmarks. Set within a cobalt blue border, light and darker zones create a sense of receding space. On top, two bold shapes—one in shades of grey, the other blushed magenta and white—are angled towards one another. It is a vision of love from an artist who, he explained, painted ‘representational pictures of emotional states’ (H. Hodgkin, quoted in E. Juncosa (ed.), Writers on Howard Hodgkin, London 2006, p. 104). In 1987, the painting was included in the major group exhibition British Art in the 20th Century: The Modern Movement at the Royal Academy of Arts, London.
Hodgkin’s works are intimate, autobiographical and deeply evocative of places and people, while bearing little pictorial relation to the visible world. Typically painted on wooden supports and incorporating painted frames or borders, they are theatres of memory, often suggesting views through or into interior spaces. Hodgkin arrived at his mature idiom in the 1970s, following early works that bore the influence of Pop and Abstract Expressionism. Across the years his colours and forms would be informed by friendship, romance, conversation and travel—particularly in Italy and India, which both had a profound impact on his outlook. While Hodgkin remained a deeply private individual, his paintings’ surfaces, atmospheres and chromatic temperatures trace a life of emotional and sensory richness.
The long gestation period of In the Green Room was not unusual. Hodgkin often felt the need to work on a single picture for several years until it ‘returned’ the memory that sparked its creation, almost as if the painting were a magical object. Curator Norman Rosenthal wrote of this work that its surface ‘seems to break out in large, freely applied brushmarks of scintillating orange paint and due to their joyful intensity, the resulting surface gives an impression of freedom. Yet Hodgkin has worked on the picture for at least three years, adjusting the relationship of one section to another. The effect of spontaneity is achieved by controlled and painstaking effort which finally results in a composition which combines logic and sensuality in a unique way’ (N. Rosenthal, ‘Three Painters of this Time: Hodgkin, Kitaj and Morley’, in British Art in the 20th Century: The Modern Movement, exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London 1987, p. 382).
Every one of Hodgkin’s paintings seeks to reincarnate an aspect of his past experience. At the same time, their language of blurs, dapples and smears—which has frequently drawn comparison with the Intimist interiors of Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard—depicts the ultimate impossibility of fixing or retrieving a memory. In the Green Room offers a view into a remembered space, while its orange daubs keep it just beyond reach. Yet the work’s sensuality and depth of feeling are unmistakable. Hodgkin often abstracted individuals to blocks or bars of paint, and here the grey and pink shapes—one appearing more withdrawn, the other lit up like a beacon—might be seen to capture aspects of the burgeoning romance between him and Peattie, which would blossom into a lifetime of love.