Artist Hugh Mendes at Murdock Shoreditch. His show will take place in the shop and Murdock Covent Garden from 27th March until the end of May.
Hugh Mendes’ career as a painter all changed when walking along Brick Lane a scrap of newspaper with a photo of an Arab terrorist pointing a gun was blown onto his foot. He picked it up, took it back to his studio and painted it as part of a composition where the terrorist’s gun was directed at George W Bush. A week later 9/11 happened and the terrorist in the painting turned out to be Osama bin Landen. That fortuitous breeze that blew the paper into Hugh’s path led him to his series of portraits based on newspaper obituaries. Having achieved widespread acclaim and success for his Obituary paintings we’re delighted to announce that Hugh will be continuing our partnership with the CHARLIE SMITH london gallery by exhibiting his works in our Covent Garden and Shoreditch stores this Spring.
He came in to 46, Redchurch St last week for a haircut with barber James Redfern and to give us the background into his thought provoking portraits.
What would you say to people who perhaps can’t understand why you would want to paint a picture that already exists?
I do get asked that question and that’s one of the main reasons I do it. They appear in the newspapers and the next day they’re a piece of trash. They’re gone. Literally, the picture’s a piece of trash. If I paint it however, that elevates it to non-trash status. It’s also a very different experience looking at a painting to looking at even a photograph, let alone a piece of newspaper that has a photograph in it. It’s three steps removed from its original, photographic source if you like. It does something very different to an image – painting it, because there’s two weeks of my own attention embedded in the paint. That does convey itself when you see a painting.
Have you ever worked for a newspaper?
No, never directly. I had a working relationship with the Independent to start with. They’ve been to my studio, I’ve been to their offices, we’ve talked a lot and I’ve been through all their archives. The people that used to work for the Independent jumped ship and all work at the Guardian now so I’ve stayed with them. The Guardian still has a pretty decent budget and a big spread for obituaries so I’m working with those guys – we still have a correspondence.
Hugh Mendes in Murdock Shoreditch.
Death is about as strong as a subject for art comes. What kind of impact does that have upon the tone of the work and your approach to it?
Death is compelling isn’t it? Some of them are kind of funny, quirky and odd. It’s a memorial piece. They are within a context of still life – Vanitas, which is one of the great traditions of painting. For the past five hundred years people have been painting objects and often, as reminders of death. That’s the context. It’s a painting of an object, and it’s an object that reminds you of your own demise. But it’s also a sort of celebration of somebody’s life. It’s a memorial piece and I try and do the best job I can to memorialise that person and make them alive in a sense.
What is it about certain individuals that makes you choose to paint them?
The obituaries are all dominated by the image. A photographic image doesn’t always work in paint and I have to transcribe it into paint. I can usually tell what’s going to work. They all mean something personally to me too. Whether it’s a filmmaker whose films I like, or a musician whose music I like – there’s something that really makes me want to paint them. It takes me a couple of weeks so I’m spending a good amount of time with this person, so it has to be somebody that I admire. Sometimes it’ll be a person that I don’t know at all but the image might be really compelling.
In terms of pure imagery, how do you feel a lack of text impacts the painting from your perspective?
I used to have and do occasionally have additional bits of text in the painting. It says ‘obituary’, it’ll say the person’s name, sometimes there’s a little sub-header about the person. The filmmaker that made Death Wish, Michael Winner died recently and I’ve been painting him. I’ve just cut out the words ‘death wish’ and stuck it on his head. That’s another thing about painting, you can play with the images and the text and I can put a different piece of text in that wasn’t there before.
Does something like that ever feel like a huge risk?
I take a lot of risks, you know. And also in some of them there will be fuzzy lines that look like text, which the Dutch were doing in the 17th century that eludes to text. There’s a story there that you can’t read. So you look at it and think ‘there’s nothing there, it’s just a fuzzy line’. There are different things I can play with. People don’t know whether that was there originally or not. People think that they are faithful copies from the newspaper – which often they are, but not always. It’s another thing about painting – you can do anything.
Since the growth in popularity of the obituary work, have you had any particularly interesting or unique private requests?
The first one I had was really early on. I started doing them in 2003 and almost immediately an old lady phoned me up. She said ‘Johnny Cash has just died I’m a lifelong fan of Johnny Cash, are you going to paint his obituary? I know about your work. If you do, I want that painting.’ She had just traced me and she came to my studio three weeks later. I said ‘yeah I’ll paint your painting.’ I would have done it anyway. He meant something to me, Johnny Cash. It was a great image – black and white contrast, the man in black. She came with her husband and they were about 90. They came to the studio with cash, bought the painting and went home happy.
Were you happy enough to let it go?
I thought it was great. But that happened almost immediately. I also get texts the day people die. Like when Michael Jackson died I got a number of texts saying ‘I want that painting when you do it.’ One person got it. That’s the thing, only one person gets them.
Do you keep those works more private once they’re finished?
No, they all go out there and get exhibited. I’ve got this show coming up in LA at the beginning of April and it’s all obituaries of Hollywood people. That’s what they wanted. They’ve also got a few going into another show, which is a human rights show. I do all this other work as well about terrorism, war and cloning and various other subjects – it is interesting to me that the obituaries are the ones that are most popular. I don’t know why, but they are. It’s a simple idea, and that’s often the way it is, if you nail a simple idea and people like it then that’s great.
So LA is your main plan right now?
There’s Charlie Smith, this here at Murdock and then Los Angeles. I’ve just shipped about 25 paintings out there. I’ve got about maybe 8 or 10 for here and the Covent Garden store once I’ve worked out the space.
Catching sight of an image from a scrap of newspaper in Brick Lane inspired your obituary work – highlighting how entire bodies of art can be so simply influenced. Could that potentially mean a new artistic direction for you awaits any day now?
It could do, it could. It happens. I’ll go with things like that, you know. I just started painting bits of newspaper when I found that picture of an Arab with a gun on Brick Lane. I didn’t know it was Osama Bin Laden, but I painted him pointing his gun at George Bush and then within a week or two 9/11 happened and that was my graduation day. It was just this weird thing that happened. It nailed me to that story, and to painting newspapers and that’s how it’s continued. Two years later I started painting obituaries and the first one I did was Princess Margaret. This is now known as ‘SS Margaret’ though because I ripped the piece of paper, the word princess was gone and it just said ‘SS Margaret’ like some sort of battleship.
Is there anybody you’re already looking forward to painting?
I’ve been waiting for ages for Fidel Castro to die. I’ve got Hugo Chavez which is second best, but I’m just waiting and waiting. He’s really lasted a long time that guy, but you know he’s a typical one for me. He’s kind of edgy and looks good. He’s got a nice beard, a big cigar, he’s loaded with meaning, Castro has got everything I like to paint. Dark glasses – the lot… I also wouldn’t have minded if Clint Eastwood had died in time for the LA show, but he hasn’t. That’s fine.
What does having opportunities with shop environments like Murdock offer your work?
It’s different isn’t it? I tried to look for images that I thought would work in this environment, so I’ve got a few beardy guys. I’ve got George Melly with his zoot suit on and a few stylish things that I thought would work basically. I’ve got a really nice image of Merce Cunningham that is already connected to Murdock via the blog. I saw it there and thought I’d better use that one. Also there’s a very nice one of Richard Hamilton – he’s got a beard, crazy hair, looks good, very cool. Those are sort of things that I think will really work. The first thing I spotted in here was the Polly Morgan. Zavier (owner of CHARLIE SMITH london) must have thought the same. He picked out the Jacksons and now me. With our work, it’s more about the style.
How did the relationship with Zavier come about?
He’s an ex-student of mine actually. That’s one way. Actually, even before that he ran a gallery in Clapham and I showed within there. I think he found me rather than the other way around – It was a long time ago. I didn’t really teach him much directly but I think the relationship just developed from there. He’s very good at being busy in Europe and at art fairs. He’s placed my stuff very well all over so that’s been nice.
When compiling the pieces, is there any response that you are already thinking you’d like to gain from critics? Is there something in your mind that you would love people to take away from them?
I’ve had a lot of really good responses over the years. What I really like is when writers write eloquently about them and I’ve been very fortunate that that has happened. There’s a guy called Ben Street who wrote the last essay about my work for the Charlie Smith Show. He was just asked to pick anything from the Saatchi site and write about it and he picked out my stuff and he wrote really insightfully about it. He wrote things that I didn’t even think about necessarily. That’s the best thing that can happen you know, when somebody picks up on the work independently of me and writes meaningfully and eloquently about it. There are a few of those on my site that you can see under reviews. I think I’ve been fortunate. I haven’t had a lot of trash written. It doesn’t appeal to trashy writers, it seems to appeal to people who are thinkers. It’s existential!
You can see Hugh’s work at Murdock Shoreditch 46 Redchurch St and Murdock Covent Garden 18 Monmouth St from Thursday 28th March until End of May.