When I've spent time in Newport it has been very apparent how important water is to the shape of the landscape, as well as the shape of the community... I wanted to make three prominent paintings that were shaped and linked by water, and to use primary colours. There's something about pure, unmixed colour that gives the work a sharpness - the sun is crisper, the reflections are sharper, and it made sense to me to incorporate that kind of visual language.
Shara Hughes uses dizzying brushwork, vibrant colors, and shifting perspectives to make paintings that defy many of the existing conventions associated with the landscape genre, of which Ole Reliable (2018) is a dazzling, chromatic example which brims with a distinct kinetic, fluid energy. Exhibited as a center-piece in Shara Hughes in 2019, the artist’s first solo presentation in Asia mounted by Galerie Eva Presenhuber, the current work is a uniquely beguiling example of the artist’s acclaimed landscape vision. Employing carefully choreographed flora as a subtle framing device, the artist sets the painting in graceful motion, prompting the viewer to peer beyond the shifting sequence of tree trunks, leaves and shadows. A recurrent motif in Hughes’ works is that of trees. In Hughes’ paintings, they are almost anthropomorphised, becoming figures, like the central tree trunk in the present work.
Often referred to as a landscape painter, Hughes sees her paintings as “not really about landscapes” at all. Working intuitively, the artist’s colourful paintings do not depict places real or imagined, but instead manifest a phycological complexity which open themselves up to the memories and experience of the viewer. The fragmented view, signature of the artist’s landscapes, tilts our orientation into otherworldly horizons, only to snap us back toward the reality of the painting; as Jason Stopa observes, Hughes’ landscapes “reveal the mystifying breach between our own subjective perceptions, our memories of a lived event and reality” (Jason Stopa, “Tripping Out: The Upended Landscapes of Shara Hughes”, Hyperallergic, 5 March 2016). In particular, Hughes’ works are distinguished by their entrancing communion of vision, nature, and psychological depth. In the artist’s own words: “I think that nature reflects emotions in so many ways. Beauty, pain, peace, sadness can all be seen in one day with the passing of time or with a weather pattern. Nature is constantly changing, you will never see the same flower twice in the exact same way. The light changes; its growing, or dying, and moving. This is very reflective of humans and psychology” (the artist cited in Emily Steer, “Shara Hughes Uses Painting to Reflect the Turbulent Human Mind”, Elephant, 16 March 2020).
Turning from interiors to landscapes in around 2015, Hughes’ fantastical palettes are reminiscent of the vivid Fauvism of Henri Matisse and the rich saturation of David Hockney. Her elaborate structural or decorative framing devices, on the other hand, recall Gustav Klimt’s plein air works; as Stopa writes: “When Klimt went on his plein air painting expeditions, he would often use a telescope or ‘viewing frame’, both tools with the capacity of presenting a detail as a totality. Similarly, [Hughes’ framing forms act] as a pair of binoculars, ones that peer beyond the world of given appearances” (Stopa, Ibid). The resulting depth of field conjures up an unprecedentedly potent connection between interior and exterior vision, and between nature and psychological states. As Prudence Peiffer writes, the “trope of peering through an ocular opening onto the world has solid precedents in the Hudson River School and Romantic painters, who employed cave mouths, bramble edges, and cataracts to encircle central depths of field that suggest states of interior and exterior sublime […] Hughes provided a unique contemporary take” (Prudence Peiffer, “Shara Hughes”, Artforum, April 2016).
待在紐波特的日子中，我明顯觀察到水對於風景地貌以至人類社群的形態都攸關重要……我想創作三幅鮮明奪目的畫作，以水塑造畫面並扣連起三者。我也想採用原色，純粹而未經混合的色彩有著某種特質，能為作品賦予清晰銳利的表現——陽光更剔透耀眼，倒影更了然分明；對我而言，將這種視覺語言融入作品是合情合理的。
莎拉・休斯從不遵循風景畫派的常規慣例，她運用令人眼花繚亂的筆觸、鮮豔亮麗的色彩以及遊移多變的視角，塑造出奇幻秀麗的風景，《可靠的老友》（2018年作）則為一例。本作曾於北京伊娃 · 培森胡柏畫廊2019年舉辦的〈莎拉・休斯〉個展中首度以軸心畫作亮相。該展覽作為藝術家首個中國個展，也象徵了藝術家進入亞洲市場的一大里程碑。莎拉‧休斯的風景視角向來備受讚譽，此作獨特迷人，正是其中的範例。藝術家以精心編排的花木作為微妙的框架，為畫作奠定優雅的動感，令觀者的目光，穿透連串枝幹、葉子和斑駁的樹影，往幽深處求索。在休斯的作品中，自然圖案和花紋元素反復出現，包括超現實的花草植物，而見於本作，則為樹木。他們經常被藝術家擬人化，時而生硬，時而柔韌，展現出人類般的一些日常姿態。
休斯雖然常被稱為風景畫家，但她認為自己的畫作幾乎「與風景無甚關係」。休斯憑直覺創作，她筆下繽紛燦爛的風景並不是任何真實甚至想像的地方，而是代表一種猶如藻類生長結構般的複雜網絡；藝術家任由作品敞開自身，讓觀者的記憶和體驗引領視角。碎片般的景象是藝術家風景畫的創作特點，引得觀者逐漸遁入一片超脫塵世之境，卻驀然被驚醒，返回現實。正如傑森‧斯托帕所述，休斯畫筆下的風景「揭示了我們的主觀感知、記憶中的生活經歷或與現實相悖，神奇玄妙」。（傑森‧斯托帕撰，〈迷幻：莎拉‧休斯顛倒失次的風景〉，載於《 Hyperallergic》，2016年3月5日）。休斯的作品呈現出視點、大自然及心深處三者之間的溝通和交融，令人著迷。藝術家曾言：「我認為大自然以許多方式反映情感。隨著時間過去或天氣變化，美麗、痛楚、平靜和悲傷，均可見於一日之間。大自然無一刻不在變化，世上沒有兩朵花姿態完全相同，因為光線會改變，其生長、枯萎、律動亦然，這也反映在人，以及人的心理之中。」（引述自莎拉‧休斯，艾米莉‧斯蒂爾撰，〈莎拉‧休斯以畫呈現人心之騷動〉，載於《Elephant》，2020年3月16日）
休斯原本主要描繪室內空間， 大約在2015年，她的題材轉為風景，其用色風格令人聯想起亨利‧馬蒂斯明亮鮮豔的野獸主義和大衛‧霍克尼飽和濃厚的色彩調配。休斯在結構或裝飾方面的取景技巧別具匠心，使人聯想起古斯塔夫‧克林姆的戶外寫生作品；如斯托帕寫道：「當克林姆考察如何在日光下作畫時，他經常會使用望遠鏡或『觀察框』，兩者都能夠將一處細節化為整體。同樣，（休斯設置的取景框架）彷彿如是一個雙目鏡般，透視世界的表象」（斯托帕，同上）。由此產生的景深緊密聯繫起內部和外部的視點，同時也聯繫起大自然與人的心理狀態，效果之妙前所未見。普魯登斯‧派弗爾寫道：「透視孔洞向外窺探世界之貌，此意念亦非休斯首創，先例可追溯至哈德遜河派和浪漫主義畫家，他們運用洞穴口、刺藤邊或大瀑布圍繞中央景深，呈現內部和外部的渺遠 境界 [……] 休斯從當代角度重新演繹，效果獨一無二。」（普魯登斯‧派弗爾撰，〈莎拉‧休斯〉，載於《藝術論壇》，2016年4月）