Suddenly Last Summer 1963

Martial Raysse’s ‘Suddenly Last Summer’ explodes with vibrant, summery colours. The electric orange background, the green and blue figure, and the poppy pink hat seem to hum with the heat of the season. I imagine Raysse, brush in hand, wrestling with how to capture the feeling of a lazy, sun-soaked afternoon. The body is a series of blocks and planes of colour that give a sense of form without being too literal, like a memory fading in the sun. The paint looks thin, almost staining the canvas, allowing the colours to really pop. A bold, almost brash choice, but it works, right? It reminds me a bit of Hockney’s swimming pools, but with a more surreal edge. Raysse is playing with abstraction and representation, inviting us to fill in the gaps, to experience the painting as a sensation as much as an image. It is a reminder that painting is about so much more than what you see; it’s about how you feel.