Robert Hodgins – The Scene of the Crime, 1994

Robert Hodgins (1920-2010)
The Scene of the Crime (1994)
oil on canvas / 910 x 1210 mm
CCAC #0117

Donated by Louis Schachat, Die Kunskamer, Cape Town

Made two years before Hotel with Landscape (Spy), The Scene of the Crime seems to suggest an interior view of the violence that would be aired in the open during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings. The painting is unusual for Robert Hodgins in that it seems to depict no figures, only an empty room bathed in a deep red glow. Upon closer inspection, however there is a reflection in the door, which opens up onto a dark alley of sorts. The image is perhaps intentionally hard to make out, but seems to contain two clear figures meeting at the bottom of a staircase.