This exhibition features original works and prints by the internationally acclaimed artist Patrick Hughes.
Hughes' fascination with the illusion of perspective began with works like Infinity (1963), Three Doors (1964) and The Space Ruler (1965).
In the 1970s Hughes hung his investigations of perception and illusion on the motif of the rainbow in a series of prints and paintings, such as Pile of Rainbows (1973) and Leaning on a Landscape (1979).
His first “reverse perspective” or “reverspective” was Sticking Out Room (1964) which was a life-size room exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1970. He returned to explore reverspective in 1990 with Up the Line and Down the Road (1991). He explains “reverspectives” are three-dimensional paintings which when viewed from the front give the impression of viewing a painted flat surface that shows a perspective view. However, as soon as the viewer moves their head, even slightly, the three-dimensional surface that supports the perspective view accentuates the depth of the image and accelerates the shifting perspective far more than the brain normally allows. This provides a powerful and disorientating impression of depth and movement. Venice the Menace, along with other paintings in the Venice collection, is a perfect example of this.
Hughes continues his reverspective work to this day from his studio in Shoreditch and today we are lucky enough to be exhibiting eight of his paintings and multiples for sale in Zuleika Gallery in Woodstock.
