The Blue Posts 1989

Patrick Caulfield made this painting, The Blue Posts, and who knows when, but it’s probably acrylic on canvas. The whole thing’s so flat, like he’s screen-printing shapes, or cutting them out of colored paper, yet there's also a kind of weird space created by the shapes. Take that beer mug, for example, down in the middle. He's painted it in such a representational style, quite realistic, so it seems almost stuck on the surface of that solid green background, doesn’t it? It’s like an advert, something real, but not real, sitting on top of all these flat shapes. And there’s something about that tension I find really interesting. It makes me think of Hockney, actually, who was doing similar stuff in the 60’s, but maybe with a bit more… warmth? Caulfield’s got a really cold eye, but in a way that I can't help but love. The painting's playing with representation, with flatness, and it's just so cool.