2000

For the National Gallery’s ‘Encounters’ show, exhibits Seurat’s Bathers, his version of Seurat’s Bathers at Asnières, next to the original.

“Although their general disposition has been retained, the figures seem emotional recollections of Seurat’s men and boys beside the Seine but without Wordsworthian ‘tranquillity.’ Instead, a swoosh of erotic energy runs through Hodgkin’s version, epitomized by the splashes of blue between the boys in the river. There is no doubt about the source in Seurat, but the result is unmistakably Hodgkin, fusing memory and sensuousness, abandon and control, all bathed in the anxieties of influence.” (Richard Shone, ArtForum International, 1 May 2000).