In 2008, the renowned British artist Howard Hodgkin (1932–2017), who painted representational pictures of emotional situations, was given a ‘Yellow Pages’ paper dress, on which he painted with his signature style, a single brushstroke, thus transforming the garment into a canvas. His intense and emotional creation is entitled ‘Gouache on Yellow Pages Dress’ and is a unique work by the painter.

Howard Hodgkin’s assistant Andy Barker recalls Hodgkin’s approach towards his creation:

“[Howard Hodgkin] was, however, very specific in asking me to put out only 3 colours, and these are the only 3 that appear on the piece. The fact that he requested these colours without further reference to the dress before working on it, suggests to me that he knew exactly what he wanted to achieve [. . .] the dress had always been at the back of his mind. [. . .] He started working on the top half of the dress with the 3 colours [. . .] I remember being totally surprised when he got halfway down the dress and announced to me ‘that’s finished’. The painting of the dress was quite swift”