Bedroom 1968

Howard Hodgkin made this print, titled 'Bedroom,' with lithography, a process of layering colours like memories. Hodgkin’s abstract language feels so personal, right? I think that has something to do with the way he lets colour relationships take centre stage. Take that apple green shape, for instance. The way he’s defined the border with a hard black line, that's very deliberate. But then notice the brown area above, which seems to bleed into the green. He's letting these hues collide, creating friction and harmony at the same time. I'm reminded of Patrick Heron, another British painter interested in the emotional capacity of colour relationships. Like Heron, Hodgkin creates work which shows us that painting is about feeling and thinking, but it is equally about the joy of seeing. Art like this proves that ambiguity is a strength, not a weakness.