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| crop of the first plate Leaving China New Hopecopyright Henry Hudson |
If you do go, be prepared to stay a while, there's an awful lot to see!
The show - and the work - is remarkable for four reasons:
- Hudson set himself the challenge of creating a contemporary version of Hogarth's series of images on a moral purpose and has pulled it off. His series of 10 panels is amazing - and then some!
- He works in plasticine - it's varnished prior to exhibition.
- It's big! He refers to the individual panels weighing something similar to a bronze.
- He sold most of the works before the show opened.
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| The Rise and Fall of Young Sen - Plates 5-10 Sotheby's Gallery copyright Henry Hudson |
In this instance, updating the series to the present day has involved switching the individual to a young Chinese man who comes to the west to study medicine but who then becomes distracted by the art world and begins a journey through various aspects of the contemporary art scene.
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| The Autopsy at King's College There's a myriad of references to contemporary events in the image Plus spot the reference to Damien Hirst's works copyright Henry Hudson |
I kept being bemused as to which Hogarth series the contemporary version was following. There's an element of A Rake's Progress with a smattering of Marriage à-la-mode and Beer Street and Gin Lane (1751) in this instance updated to drugs rather than alcohol.
However what struck me the most was the overwhelming amount of content. It's also not unlike Grayson Perry's The Vanity of Small Differences - particularly in relation to size, perspective and the emphasis on drawing out lots of small but important details. However there's an awful lot more 'content' in these Henry Hudson artworks.
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| 3. Protest and Performance spot the National Gallery in the background copyright Henry Hudson |
I'm not in the least bit bothered by the similarity. I'm just really pleased that there is yet another artist who is interested in narrative art and social comment on contemporary behaviour! The fact that like Grayson Perry, he's chosen to make his artwork in a medium not much seen in galleries these days is all the better!
These are links to:
- RECOMMENDED - A video about how he works - S|2 Presents Henry Hudson - Part I - The Artist in his Studio.
- A second video about this particular series of artworks - S|2 Presents Henry Hudson - Part II - The Rise and Fall of Young Sen
His website also explains the process of how he works
You can see more of his work on his website - including the drawings which appear to be an essential part of the process.
Below you can find images of some of the works in the series.
What isn't mentioned so much is the fact that the series is laden with references to art - both historical and contemporary. In fact it's quite a heavy duty work-out in the "spot the cultural reference" department.
There's everything from a reworking of The Third of May by Goya (and Manet) in the final 'plate'
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| a crop of The Execution this tells the story Young Sen's return to China and his beating and final demise copyright Henry Hudson |
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| crop of Rehabilitation copyright Henry Hudson |
in the remarkable work about Rehabilitation - which in turn echoes the paintings of St Remy by Van Gogh topped off with images associated with Jeff Koons and Jake and Dinos Chapman.
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| Rehabilitation copyright Henry Hudson |
These are links to articles about the exhibition and the artist. The universal theme is how the series took over his life and consumed all his time for a very long period.
- The Telegraph - Henry Hudson: the artist remodelling Hogarth's work from plasticine
- BBC - Plasticine art by Henry Hudson on show at Sotheby's
- BlouinInfo - has a slideshow of the works although to me they look a lot more muted than in real life (and my photos!)
- GQ - Dylan Jones meets iconic artist Henry Hudson
Thanks for this, I really enjoyed it. I shall never be able to get to see it, but you give a remarkable commentary.
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