The Hunt Club, paperback cover 1964

Robert Maguire painted this paperback cover, The Hunt Club, with a pulpy and intense energy. The palette is surprisingly simple: that flash of orange against the green background. Look at the way the green paint is applied, scumbled on with visible brushstrokes that don’t try to hide themselves. This is painting as doing, as a process of laying down marks. There’s a real sense of the physical here: the rough texture of the paint, that screaming orange. The brushwork is all about speed and immediacy, which really heightens the drama. See how the colour describes the form with broad strokes. The way the woman’s dress folds and drapes, it's all just suggested with colour. Like, he knew exactly how to make it look real with just a few simple marks. I’m reminded of Alex Katz in the way the forms are simplified into flat planes of colour to create something compelling. It’s a really interesting way of seeing, where clarity and ambiguity dance together.