oil on canvas
50 x 45 cm

“The blatancy of recent abstractions by Clive Hodgson is perhaps a function of the sheer urge to make painting ‘difficult’ again, in a time when almost anything seems assimilable into the open field of contemporary art. It is hard to imagine any painting creating the sort of unease today that Hélion’s or Guston’s style shifts did. Yet Hodgson’s refusal of any ‘touch’, his ultra-thin application straight onto white primer, and his use of ornamentalism, are all truly and excitingly disconcerting.”

Merlin James