Nature and Culture by Patrick Hughes

Patrick Hughes
b. 1939 | British

Nature and Culture

Signed, dated "Nature and Culture / Patrick Hughes / 2000-2023"
Oil on board construction

Another success from the artist, Nature and Culture displays a three-dimensional, illusionistic scene for which Patrick Hughes’s oeuvre has become renowned. Part painting, part sculpture and part optical illusion, this work by the London-based artist invites the viewer to explore beautiful mountains from a wood-floored interior. The three-dimensional construction breaks free from the wall and appears to shift as the viewer moves in front of it. The artist’s experimentations with perspective and perception involve the viewer in a highly tangible way that is rarely seen in fine art. Driven by ideas of engagement, originality and humor, Hughes is one of the leading figures in contemporary British art.

One of the artist’s more overtly surrealist artworks, Nature and Culture depicts six interior doors ajar opening onto an exterior landscape, where the snow-topped cliffs contrast against a vivid blue sky. Hughes generates an illusionistic perspective in this construction that immerses the viewer in a dreamlike environment, where one could simply open a door to enter a new world. 

For Hughes to feel his art is complete, it needs the physical presence of the spectator, engaging the body as well as the eye and mind. The use of the psychological relationship between reality and representation destabilizes both the viewer and the image being viewed. Hughes aims for this immersive experience, with the goal of taking his viewers somewhere they have never been before, though elements, such as famous architecture, walls, library settings and landscapes seem familiar. 

Hughes coined the term reverspective for these types of constructions, which he describes as “perspective in reverse.” He utilizes the traditional idea of one-point perspective in which an artist can create the illusion of receding space and dimensionality with converging lines upon a single vanishing point on the horizon line. However, he reverses this concept by bringing these lines forward into space using three-dimensional planes, but still abides by a strict vanishing point. Hughes says, “When the principles of perspective are reversed, the mind is deceived into believing that a static painting can move of its own accord.”

Born in 1939, Patrick Hughes completed formal training at the Leeds College of Art before beginning his artistic career. He developed his first reverspective work in 1964 for the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. Entitled Sticking-Out Room, Hughes’ hypnotic vision of an interior room seemed to recede in space, marking the beginning of the artist’s long fascination with perspective illusions. Hughes’ work resides in prestigious collections including the British Library and the British Academy in London.

Dated 2023

Unframed: 36 1/2“ high x 89 1/4“ wide (92.71 x 226.70 cm)
Framed: 43 7/8” high x 96 3/8“ wide x 11” deep (111.44 x 244.79 x 27.94 cm)