Notes

Artist’s Models is a striking example of Robert Hodgins’s distinctive ability to capture individual personalities through an abstract and imprecise vernacular. Typical of his earlier style, this painting challenges the viewer’s perceptions through the constant fluctuation of identities generated by the ambiguity of the characteristics he assigns to the various figures. Stark colour contrasts and precise lines highlight individual differences while imprecise smudges lend equivocation.

An unusual feature of this painting is the presence of the artist himself. Although, in his long career, Hodgins depicted an array of colourful characters, he rarely, if ever, included himself as a subject. Choosing to portray himself alongside his models highlights the legendary gregariousness of the artist and renders, perhaps, a better self-portrait than any other depiction the artist could provide.

From his earliest studies at Goldsmith College, London, in the 1950s, Hodgins maintained an interest in life drawing and painting as a reflection of the human condition. Although, stylistically, his approach to representation had developed dramatically from the earliest examples where accurate rendering was replaced with spatial ambiguity and forms were emphasised with simplified features and visceral distortions, he always captured the essence of his models – each unique.