Dialogues on influence, interpretation, and artistic lineage

Waggett was invited by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston to provide an artist’s perspective during the landmark exhibition Hockney — Van Gogh: The Joy of Nature. Following a private early-access tour of the exhibition with museum director Gary Tinterow, she led extended groups of visitors through the galleries, offering critical insight into the ways artistic influence is exchanged and transformed across generations.

This collaboration positioned Waggett as an interlocutor between two major figures in the history of modern painting, examining how Van Gogh’s radical approach to colour, composition, and landscape reverberates through Hockney’s practice. Speaking from the vantage point of her own work, she explored how artists negotiate influence — how they absorb, reinterpret, and ultimately build upon the visual languages of those who came before them.

The invitation reflected a growing institutional interest in Waggett’s perspective on contemporary painting and its historical lineage. It also offered an opportunity to articulate the role of living artists as active participants in cultural dialogue, bridging past and present and contributing to a deeper public understanding of how art evolves across time.