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Artworks
Nigel Henderson 1917-1985
Double-sided screen, circa 1970Collage198 x 76 cms
78 x 29 7/8 ins14014Further images
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This exceptional double-sided ‘screen’ by Nigel Henderson is extremely rare. It uses photographic sources from antiquity to contemporary magazines to address stereotypical roles for men and women and explores the...This exceptional double-sided ‘screen’ by Nigel Henderson is extremely rare. It uses photographic sources from antiquity to contemporary magazines to address stereotypical roles for men and women and explores the way both sexes may be objectified. A key entry point is provided by two lists of characteristics that list roles for me and women. One list provides the following male roles: King, prince, father, lad, husband, master, sir landlord. A second list gives these female roles: Nun, widow, niece, lass, actress, bride, daughter and sister.
As one explores the two sides of the screen one can journey from ancient Egypt ( a profile head), Greece and Rome (the Victory of Samothrace), through the Renaissance (Mona Lisa and assorted reclining nudes) and on to fashion pages and pinups. Male roles include idealised Greek bronzes, ardent suitors, a chef and a dancer.
Completed around 1970, it uses imagery that Henderson began to incorporate into his pieces at the end of the 1940s, as in a four part screen that is in the collection of Pallant House Gallery which was began in 1949 with the final part completed in 1969.
It also suggests an interest in the art brut of Dubuffet and others in Paris. Like them, and as with the photographer Brassai, there is an interest in the immediacy of the street, of graffiti, torn posters and advertising hoardings, and the layering of imagery. Henderson works into the surface, scratches into it, layers painted interventions, builds up and scrapes down, to suggest a work that has a history. Its weathered appearance, incorporation of text and diverse imagery embody the effect of changing attitudes and of the passage of time.
This double-sided 'screen' comes direct from the Estate of Nigel Henderson and appears to have never been exhibited.
Provenance
The Estate of Nigel Henderson -
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