Catherine Goodman: Silent Music
30th January, 2025 – 12th April, 2025
Hauser & Wirth New York
22nd Street
New York
New York – Opening in January, Catherine Goodman. Silent Music presents a series of new, large-scale paintings by the British artist, where her characteristically expressive brushwork yields animated surfaces that pulse with the dynamic energy of their making.
For Goodman, the studio is a place of spiritual meditation. Each painting represents an act of intimate transmutation—a way for her to turn closely held memories and personal vulnerabilities into newfound stability.
Oil on linen
196 x 214 x 4 cm / 77 1/8 x 84 1/4 x 1 5/8 in
Catherine Goodman © Catherine Goodman
Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Photo: Eva Herzog
As the artist trustee at the National Gallery in London, Goodman has spent hours drawing from the collection and has developed a particular affinity for Old Master paintings, which she describes as her “only real teacher.” Inspired by the intensity and drama of Renaissance masterworks by artists such as Titian and Veronese, and influenced by the poignantly psychological work of such groups as the London School, Goodman’s highly personal paintings transcend her individual experience, opening outward and inviting us in.
For decades, Goodman has maintained a daily practice of drawing from observation. Through this, she has constructed charged pathways between the physical world she observes and her own inner landscape.
Oil on linen
200 x 220 x 4 cm / 78 3/4 x 86 5/8 x 1 5/8 in
Catherine Goodman © Catherine Goodman
Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Photo: Eva Herzog
In her most recent abstractions, she often begins with landscapes and portraits that hold personal meaning. She then obscures these figurative foundations, building evocative, densely layered compositions that invite sustained attention. Lago (2024), a whirlwind of crimson, cobalt, and lush green, is one of many works named for a meaningful location or loved one whose spirit they embody. Other compositions, such as the exuberant Pahari Picnic (2024) or Echo (2024)—monumental in scale and bursting with energy—give form to poignant memories.
The substantial physical presence of these paintings, with their thick impasto and richly layered pigments, materialize intangible impressions of moments, places, and people. They also reflect the psychological terrain encountered during the creative process. As the artist has confided to writer Jennifer Higgie, her artmaking “was never about problem-solving. It’s about releasing something.”
Though rooted in the personal, Goodman’s oeuvre uses the intimate act of painting to address the expansive macrocosm of collective experience. Her paintings act as a form of silent communication, resonating beyond the written or spoken word. Persistently forward-looking, Goodman’s latest body of work continues her tireless pursuit of art’s unique capacity to nurture connection.
Oil on linen
180 x 210 x 4 cm / 70 7/8 x 82 5/8 x 1 5/8 in
Catherine Goodman © Catherine Goodman
Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth
Photo: Eva Herzog
In conjunction with the exhibition, Hauser & Wirth Publishers will release Catherine Goodman, a richly illustrated monograph focused on Goodman’s new paintings. Featuring an illuminating essay by writer and curator Jennifer Higgie, alongside revealing reflections from Goodman herself, this volume sheds light on how drawing and painting are inextricably intertwined in her deeply intuitive practice.
On 1 February, Hauser & Wirth Publishers will celebrate the release with a conversation between Catherine Goodman and Lynne Tillman.
Catherine Goodman: Silent Music opens on the 30th of January, 2025 until the 12th of April, 2025 at Hauser & Wirth New York
©2025 Hauser & Wirth
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