UNSIGNED, with COA. Before completion, this work was Illustrated in WANTED Magazine Sept 2009 (detail) with final Hodgins interview/article before his death, by Sean O'Toole
Hodgins’ open and playful approach to image-making manifests in the formal vitality of the final products. His colour selection is vibrant. The surfaces and brush marks are varied. His figures and objects, comically stylised, appear animated through their spontaneous description. These can be seen as products of a disciplined knowledge of the craft of painting, making art, and the art of transforming life into paint. 'A Gesture On Stage' forms part of a body of work in which the artist articulates his interpretation of Alfred Jarry's play, Ubu Roi, wherein the central character is a thoroughly evil, spiteful and dangerous bureaucrat.
Some Hodgins’ paintings convey a feeling of deep seriousness and sadness; the paintings depict a sense of confusion that many people experience. However Hodgins believed that being an artist is about creating something new, an artist perfects the art of ingeniously reinventing content within society.
“Being an artist is about putting something into your subject matter that isn’t inherently there,” wrote Hodgins in 2000. “You are not at the mercy of your subject matter, it’s the content, and what you put into it, what you do with it, what extract from it, and what you put it with, that is so exciting. If you are aware of this, then you begin to build on the content of your whole life. Before you know where you are, you’re already thinking about the next work, and you could live to be 300. Paintings can be one-night stands or lifetime love-affairs – you never know until you get cracking”
NOT FOR SALE, stored for Jan
HOLD for museum show 2020
painting with protruding shelf (painted) at the bottom of the stretcher)
Some Hodgins’ paintings convey a feeling of deep seriousness and sadness; the paintings depict a sense of confusion that many people experience. However Hodgins believed that being an artist is about creating something new, an artist perfects the art of ingeniously reinventing content within society.
“Being an artist is about putting something into your subject matter that isn’t inherently there,” wrote Hodgins in 2000. “You are not at the mercy of your subject matter, it’s the content, and what you put into it, what you do with it, what extract from it, and what you put it with, that is so exciting. If you are aware of this, then you begin to build on the content of your whole life. Before you know where you are, you’re already thinking about the next work, and you could live to be 300. Paintings can be one-night stands or lifetime love-affairs – you never know until you get cracking”