“Why do my still paintings appear to move? Your eyes are telling you that you are moving to the left, your feet are telling you that you are moving to the right. We prefer to believe these solid bodies are moving than our bodies and eyes are out of kilter, as if we had been sawn in half. And they continue to move even when you have been to the side and seen how they are constructed. Near things move faster in our visual field than further things, so as we move about the front of my pieces this information is completely misleading because my paintings imitate the receding of reality in detail, but in the large make receding reality advance towards you. Marcel Duchamp says somewhere that the spectator is half the art experience, the artist only the first half, and I am pleased that in my work that is particularly true.” (Patrick Hughes)

Patrick Hughes’ works invite the viewer to experience the relation between the self and the work of art. With their rhythmical shapes and meticulously painted surfaces his witty combinations of painting and sculpture not only illustrate multiple points of view from a three-dimensional perspective, but defy the senses with a dizzying sense of paradoxical motion.

Hughes’ signature “stick-out” paintings begin their life as several trapezoidal or conical board constructions are fused together into pristine wall reliefs. The inherent repetition of each structure sets the tone for its unique theme, which is then rendered with meticulous attention. Much like an architect, Hughes utilizes linear perspective in conveying spatially correct relationships, painting the edges of rectangular shapes to converge on vanishing points, painstakingly rendering the texture gradients of floors and walls and illustrating objects in perspective as diminishing in size from front to back. As enticing as a spider’s web to a moth, Hughes’ “paradoxical on perspective” becomes more complex with every line. His three-dimensional sceneries not only defy the static sense of a painting as frozen in time, but also reverse the apparent sense of perspective, where shapes that seem near are actually receding in space. This effect, referred to as perverspective in Hughes’ terms, contradicts the viewer’s perceptions by giving the impression that the paintings are moving sideways. While moving our head to look at one of Hughes’ works, we experience the eerie sensation of accelerated motion of body extension, which gives was to curious observations whereupon one seems compelled to pace from side to side to accentuate the motion. This perplexing stance is often referred to as the “Hughes dance.”

Hughes’s works are at once visually engaging and surprisingly familiar, playful ruminations on the history of art, perspective and Surrealism. Most of the paintings feature key elements in Hughes’ craft such as rectilinear forms: gallery walls, buildings, books, doorways and works of art that serve as anchors to the reverse perspective effect.

Patrick Hughes lives and works in London. Widely recognised as one of the major painters of contemporary British art, he is also a designer, teacher and writer. His works are part of many public collections including: the British Library and the Tate Gallery, London; the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow; The Deutsche Bibliotheek, Frankfurt and the Denver Art Museum. Hughes has exhibited in London and throughout Europe, South East Asia, America and Canada. Books by Patrick Hughes include Vicious Circles and Infinity; Upon the Pun: Dual Meaning in Words and Pictures and More on Oxymoron.