Notes

In 2000, Robert Hodgins began work on a suite of paintings depicting various American social archetypes, including gridiron footballers, uniformed cadets, hooded Klansmen, pinstriped financiers and this empty-eyed group of red-tie wearing mafiosi. While bounded by a unifying theme and shared title, Hodgins adopted a range of compositional techniques in his Daumier-influenced exploration of social identity. His figures ranged from rudimentary to finely wrought, while his palette reflected a conscious move between taut economy and lavish abundance. Unlike Clubmen of America: Academy Cadets (2002), a detailed study in blue of trainee officers sold by Strauss & Co in 2015 for R1 591 520, this work is consistent with a subset of more graphic paintings. In each, the pictorial subject is rendered through form and line; colour plays a supporting role. It is almost as if this quartet of men with monolithic heads resembling moai sculpture from the Easter Islands were chiselled rather than painted.

Literature

Brenda Atkinson (2002) Robert Hodgins. Cape Town: Tafelberg Publishers. Illustrated on page 109.