Charlotte Mullins comments on Naples

HOWARD HODGKIN was a Colourist who lived and breathed the past. His vivid paintings were recollections of intense experiences. But translating sensations, smells, feelings and moods into strokes of paint was never easy and, sometimes, it would take him years to feel he had captured the moment. Despite each painting having a specific memory at its core—often suggested by the work’s title—they appear abstract, comprising broad stripes, swirls and splotches of colour.

Waking Up in Naples is filled with heat. The painted orange frame offers a warm contrast to the turquoise brushstrokes that evoke the sea, as red blooms and sensuous curves undulate below. These could suggest a nude reclining on a bed by a window, with balcony railings and flowerpots framing an azure sea. But nothing coheres and, ultimately, this remains an abstract feast for the eye. By translating his highly charged memory into sensual colour, Hodgkin conveys the intensity of his recalled feelings.

Hodgkin was a voracious traveller and spent much time in southern Italy and India, where the light was hot and the colours zinged. He drew on the work of earlier Colourists—henri Matisse, Édouard Vuillard—but created his own language that hovered between figuration and abstraction. This painting was completed in 1984, the year he represented Britain in the prestigious Venice Biennale. Many believed he would win the inaugural Turner Prize that year, but he had to wait until 1985 for the accolade.