ART BASEL 2023

Three works by Paula Rego showcase her audacious painterly style, the earlier being especially illustrative of the artist’s bold proclivity for subversion through colour and bodily form. As Rego’s style turned toward the figurative, the works still embody the fantastical elements that were central to her work. Exploring the subject of palm reading, hagiographic iconography, and playing with creatures that dwarf their human counterparts, the surreal was a significant impetus behind Rego’s entire oeuvre – a crucial method in which she represented psychological experiences and disturbed received ideas of time, space, and identity.

Three significant paintings by Howard Hodgkin each deal with an important aspect of the artist's oeuvre. Venice Sunset belongs to an impressive body of pictures influenced by Hodgkin’s many visits to Venice; an interior, Living Room, exhibits the heavy influence of the 20th century masters Edgar Degas and Edouard Vuillard; and an intimate and highly impactful painting, Fresh Air, evokes the deep-seated impression made by the artist's trips to India that underpins much of his work.