For almost the first 20 years of his career Howard Hodgkin worked with paint, creating a body of work characterised by bright colours. Hodgkin approached work by starting from a particular subject, and gradually transforming it into a vivid abstraction. Hodgkin was primarily interested in screen printing because it allowed him to carry out his concentrated working method, creating collages and exploring colour and form during the printing process. However, Girl at Night uses the lithography technique which for the artist was an unsuccessful experiment. Hodgkin did not like the mechanical quality of the process.