Catalogue entry
T03407 Teatro Olimpico 1980
Acrylic on canvas 44 3/4 × 57 1/2 (1137 × 1458)
Inscribed ‘Hayter 80’ b.r. and ‘June 17 80 Teatro Olimpico’ on reverse
Presented by the artist 1982
The architectural shapes used in this painting are taken from two interiors: the auditorium of Palladio's Teatro Olimpico at Vicenza, and the artists' studio at the rue Cassini, Paris, where it was painted.
The artist visited Vicenza for the first time in February 1980, with the particular purpose of seeing Palladio's buildings, which Joseph Losey's film of Don Giovanni (1979) had recently brought to his mind. He made a sketch in the theatre, but it is represented only schematically in this painting, and the detail is not important. In the right hand half of the painting; shown upside down, is the shape of the stepped hemispherical seats and the row of columns behind them. The drawing of the other half of the painting is taken from the large hanging plants and the metal window of his studio. The geometry of these is distorted, and they are shown as they would appear in a concave mirror… (read more)
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