Modernist tasks and liberties have stirred up a canny diffidence…

Modernist tasks and liberties have stirred up a canny diffidence among painters of the largest accomplishment when pressed to talk about their art. It appears unseemly, or naive, to have much to say about the pictures or to attach to them any explicit “program.” No more theories expounding an ideal way of painting. And, as statements wither and with them counter-statements, hardly anything in the way of provocation either. Decorum suggests that artists sound somewhat trapped when being drawn out, and venturing a few cagey glimpses of intention.

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“About Hodgkin,” from Howard Hodgkin Paintings edited by Michael Auping (1995), p. 105, Harry N. Abrams ISBN 0-8109-3433-7

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