Patrick Hughes

Flowers Gallery, New York (acquired directly from the artist)

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Executed in 2005, Patrick Hughes’s Pop Pair seamlessly incorporates iconic images of Pop art into the artist’s signature “reverspective” style. Developed by Hughes in the 1960s, the “reverspective” is a three-dimensional relief painting in which the points physically closest from the viewer appear furthest, transforming the surface of the work into an stunning optical illusion. As the first British Pop artist to receive a solo exhibition in London, Hughes’ work treads a fine line between Pop and Surrealism, as is evident in works such as Pop Pair. His reputation developed further through exhibitions including New Approaches to the Figure at London’s Arthur Jeffress Gallery in 1962, where his work was exhibited alongside that of Peter Blake, Derek Boshier, Richard Hamilton and David Hockney. Yet his relationship with Pop was by no means exhaustive, being identified by the critic David Sylvester as a ‘part-Pop’ artist alongside the likes of Allen Jones, R.B. Kitaj and Eduardo Paolozzi, rather than the fully committed artists of the Jeffress gallery. Hughes was well aware of the developments occurring in the United States, later recalling ‘we knew at the time about … Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns and Warhol. We knew all about Pop Art and the fag end of surrealism, [Hans] Bellmer and all those other guys …’ (the Artist, quoted in James Charmley, Creative License: Leeds College of Art (1963-1973), The Lutterworth Press, Cambridge, 2015, p.20). Together with fellow teachers at Leeds College of Art, including Glynn Williams, Hughes was drawn to the bright, optimistic colors of the work emerging from America during this period, as well as the popular cultural imagery that they drew from it. 

Pop Pair offers an artist’s perspective on the golden era of Pop art with takes on works by Andy Warhol adorning the twisting surface of this recent “reverspective”. With each work set against an off-white background, the viewer is drawn into a gallery of renowned images. Despite the familiarity of Warhol’s pieces, Hughes’ handiwork is inescapable. Any images within a “reverspective” become part of Hughes’ own stylistic universe, folded into an engrossing visual manipulation. “When the principles of perspective are reversed and solidified into sculpted paintings something extraordinary happens;” Hughes says of his work. “The mind is deceived into believing the impossible, that a static painting can move of its own accord.” In allowing these cultural references to “move” with the painting, Hughes gives the viewer an opportunity to enter into a dynamic visual dialogue with Pop Pair and experience the cultural phenomenon of Pop Art in a captivating and intimate manner.