Dinner at Smith Square 1975 - 1979

Curator: Howard Hodgkin’s “Dinner at Smith Square” is a riot of color, almost a visual feast, isn't it? Editor: It’s… chaotic. But also strangely comforting, like a half-remembered dream of a party. Curator: Hodgkin often used abstraction to capture the essence of a social encounter or a place. The title gives us a clue; it's not about depicting a dinner realistically but evoking the feeling of one. Editor: All those layers of paint, the way the colours bleed into each other… it's like trying to hold onto a memory as it fades. Was Hodgkin thinking about specific social dynamics, or more about his personal associations? Curator: He was famously private about his intentions, leaving the interpretation to us. But the scale, the intensity... I think it’s meant to envelop you in a sensory experience. Editor: Maybe, and I find it interesting how the heavy frame becomes integrated into the composition. It contains the experience while also emphasizing its artificiality, right? I’m left contemplating the relationship between memory, emotion, and how paintings help us feel and think. Curator: Precisely. Hodgkin offers an opening, not a conclusion. I leave with a sense of a fleeting moment captured, and that is lovely.