Moroccan Door 1991

Howard Hodgkin made this painting, Moroccan Door, with, what looks like, oil paint, in thick swirling brushstrokes. It looks like it could have been such a joyful process. There’s something about the way the colours bleed and blend that feels so instinctive. Hodgkin wasn’t afraid to let the paint do its thing, it seems. Look at the blues on either side: each stroke a record of movement. The white peeking through creates a marbling effect that’s almost liquid. The black and green in the centre almost look like an after thought, creating the rectangular impression of the titular door. Hodgkin’s like a colour alchemist, and this painting reminds me of Matisse, in the way he uses colour to evoke feeling and memory. Neither artist had any interest in the traditional, like trying to capture the real world; more in creating a world of their own. And maybe that’s what a door can be, a portal into another way of seeing.