Through his sculptures, Des Hughes reconfigures our rapport with the everyday by staging banal readymade objects next to handcrafted replicas of commodities and three-dimensional caricatures of familiar things, creating a world that is surreal and comic, with a particular form of deadpan Britishness.
In a Brown Study (2011) takes its inspiration from the ‘framed screen’ at 2 Willow Road, Hampstead the home of the Modernist architect Ernő Goldfinger. (now National Trust). It was used to display a constantly changing collection of family pictures and artefacts. The screen was also used by Surrealists as a device for ‘framing openings’ a democratic space for insinuation and emotional relationships between objects that are introduced. The work was launched into the collection through a display of works selected by Hughes that included The Artist’s Mother by Alberto Giacometti, Doves by Barbara Hepworth, drawing from the 16th century and 20th century landscapes, portrait and still lives.
The work was launched into the collection through a display of works selected by Hughes that included The Artist’s Mother (1949) by Alberto Giacometti, Doves (1927) by Barbara Hepworth, 16th century drawings and 20th century landscapes, portraits and still-life paintings. Manchester Art Gallery has impressive historic and modern collections, the latter of which is particularly strong in early 20th century British art including Paul Nash, Stanley Spencer, Wyndham Lewis and Henry Moore.
