Three years ago the Director of the National Gallery, Neil MacGregor, asked Howard Hodgkin if he would like to be involved in an exhibition called “Close Encounters”. The idea, MacGregor explained, was to put together a show of works by living artists inspired by particular paintings in the museum. Was there a National Gallery picture on which Hodgkin might like to base a new work of his own?
The artist accepted the invitation with enthusiasm. “I’d always wanted to paint my own version of Seurat’s Bathers at Asnieres,” he recalls. “I’d wanted to do it for thirty years. To me it was always the great classical painting, an extraordinary example of a man taking a part of his life and turning it into a kind of monument, a totally self-contained image.” The ambition to do the same has animated much of Hodgkin’s own work. He likens the process of creating his own version of Seurat’s masterpiece to “having a conversation”. Two weeks from now, when “Close Encounters” opens, eavesdropping will be possible. Hodgkin’s painting will be hung next to Seurat’s in Gallery 44 of the National Gallery for the duration of the exhibition (14 June – 17 September).
Hodgkin’s picture will no doubt shock some of his admirers, both on account of its vehemence and its extreme and surprising legibility. The majority of the artist’s works have been inspired by private experiences and many are painted in an oblique and enigmatic style. But here all is explicit because, for once, we can compare the painter’s starting point – Seurat’s picture, right there on the wall of the National Gallery – with what he has made of it. Hodgkin remarks that “A friend of mine, when he saw the painting for the first time, said ‘How incredibly generous of you...
