private green spaces
Hogan has long been fascinated by London squares and the symbolic elaboration of their central gardens. Her interest stems from the fact that she sees these private communal enclosures from the point of view of an outsider: she is, like all non-residents, permitted occasional glimpses into the insular railed area, but it remains tantalizingly inaccessible.
Extract from the essay The Three Perfections: Eileen Hogan and Urban Space by Todd Longstaffe-Gowan in Eileen Hogan: Personal Geographies published by Yale University Press, 2019
Edwardes Square
oil, wax, and charcoal on panel, 57 × 75 cm
2016
Portman Square
oil on board,182 x 121 cm
2006
Constants are the dignified elegant sobriety of the original Portman development and the glory of the Square gardens - the London planes, those soaring mottle trunked giants, some almost as old as the buildings they shade - and behind the well cast black painted spiky railings, the laurel, the bay, the fragrant privet, the ribes and the kerria, beneath the delicate tracery of branches against the sky. These green oases are havens to bird and frog and ancient toad, and also to the almost as rarely sighted key holders (are they very few, very busy, have they mastered the art of invisibility?). Through Eileen’s filtered, sun shafted, light dappled, sparkling paintings we glimpse their lovely well cherished private ¬ nay, secret - world.
Extract from The Setting by Christophe Gibbs, an essay in Four Squares published by The Fine Art Society, 2006
Bryanston Square
oil, wax and charcoal on paper, 107 x 112 cm
2010
Manchester Square blossom
oil on panel, 23 x 18 cm
2020
Sophie’s Lunch at the Chelsea Arts Club
oil on board, 141 × 109 cm
1994
