Nick Devereux
All nowhere gone I
2011
charcoal on paper
133 x 205 centimeters
Unique
For the three drawings "All Nowhere Gone I, II & III", elements of the reconstruction for "Hubris" were extracted, reconstructed and repeated. The works play on the sense of recognition found through the comparisons with "Hubris". Exaggerated gestures accentuated by dramatic lighting direct the viewers' eye around the forms suggesting that after the frozen moment, the sense of action will continue.
Nick Devereux
All nowhere gone II
2011
charcoal on paper
135 x 195.5 centimeters
Unique
For the three drawings "All Nowhere Gone I, II & III", elements of the reconstruction for "Hubris" were extracted, reconstructed and repeated. The works play on the sense of recognition found through the comparisons with "Hubris". Exaggerated gestures accentuated by dramatic lighting direct the viewers' eye around the forms suggesting that after the frozen moment, the sense of action will continue.
Nick Devereux
All nowhere gone III
2011
charcoal on paper
133 x 213 centimeters
Unique
For the three drawings "All Nowhere Gone I, II & III", elements of the reconstruction for "Hubris" were extracted, reconstructed and repeated. The works play on the sense of recognition found through the comparisons with "Hubris". Exaggerated gestures accentuated by dramatic lighting direct the viewers' eye around the forms suggesting that after the frozen moment, the sense of action will continue.
Nick Devereux
Hubris
2011
oil on canvas
200 x 300 centimeters
Unique
In "Hubris", two destroyed baroque paintings, one mythological and one religious, both with themes of martyrdom, are fused together in a reconstruction that gives prominence to their shared compositional dynamics. Both "Apollo and Marsyas" by Giovanni Battista LANGETTI and "The Martyrdom of St Erasmus" by Nicolas POUSSIN were destroyed in Dresden during the war. The first image depicts the story of the flaying of the satyr Marsyas after he loses a musical contest against Apollo. The legend is a metaphor of the triumph of intellect (symbolized by Apollo's stringed instrument) over sensuality (Marsyas' flute). POUSSIN transposes the religious scene of Erasmus' martyrdom (by the same means of flaying) into the same composition : a figure upside down that acts as a visual balance to the movement of the other. By working up preliminary collage studies created by cutting and pasting photocopies of the two images over each other, Nick DEVEREUX arrived at the design for the final work in oil on canvas which fused together the dynamics of the two original works, while freeing it of the original subject matter.
Nick Devereux
Ivo
2011
oil on canvas
170 x 170 centimeters
Unique
"Ivo" is a reconstruction of Gordon MATTA CLARK's "Conical Intersect", famous yet short-lived creation produced in 1975 near the Centre Pompidou (still under construction at the time). Nick DEVEREUX's composition is based on photo montages of the destroyed work, one for the interior and one for the exterior, that are composed by lots of photos stuck together to create a space that a camera lens cannot capture. The sculpture from which the painting was based on, transform the spatial distortions of the photo montage back into three dimensions and evoke a baroque dome.
Nick Devereux
Known Unknown I
2011
oil on canvas
56 x 46 centimeters
Unique
"Known Unknown I" is an anonymous portrait, originally intended to immortalize someone's identity, which is revived and simultaneously destroyed through Nick DEVEREUX's reconstruction of the figure's face based on a sculpture made of glass, sculpture that was also doomed to be short-lived.
Nick Devereux
Untitled (Bragolin II)
2011
pastel on digital pigment print on rag paper
84 x 65 centimeters
Unique
For his series "Untitled (Bragolins)", Nick DEVEREUX used reproductions of a group of mass-produced and highly popular paintings that were known as "Crying Boys". The paintings feature a variety of tearful children looking morosely straight ahead; they were made by Bruno AMADIO (commonly known as BRAGOLIN) during the post Second World War period in Venice, Italy. On September 4, 1985, the British tabloid newspaper "The Sun" reported that a firefighter from Yorkshire was claiming that undamaged copies of the painting were frequently found amidst the ruins of burned houses. He stated that no firefighter would allow a copy of the painting into his own house. Over the next few months, "The Sun" and other tabloids ran several articles on house fires suffered by people who had owned the painting. By the end of November, belief in the painting's curse was widespread enough that "The Sun" was organizing mass bonfires of the paintings, sent in by readers. To lift the curse it is said you must give the painting to another or reunite the boy and the girl and hang them together. It was later found out that the prints were treated with some varnish containing fire repellant, and that the string holding the painting to the wall would be the first to perish, resulting in the painting landing face down on the floor and thus being protected. Meanwhile, the normal effect of mass-producing an image had been distorted by the weight of superstition inflicted on it by a tabloid newspaper. After sandpapering away the original heads, Nick DEVEREUX replaced them with drawings of sculptures he had made out of paper. Thus, the subject matter is obscured and the remaining qualities of the original image are accentuated.
Nick Devereux
Untitled (Bragolin III)
2011
pastel on digital pigment print on rag paper
83 x 65 centimeters
Unique
For his series "Untitled (Bragolins)", Nick DEVEREUX used reproductions of a group of mass-produced and highly popular paintings that were known as "Crying Boys". The paintings feature a variety of tearful children looking morosely straight ahead; they were made by Bruno AMADIO (commonly known as BRAGOLIN) during the post Second World War period in Venice, Italy. On September 4, 1985, the British tabloid newspaper "The Sun" reported that a firefighter from Yorkshire was claiming that undamaged copies of the painting were frequently found amidst the ruins of burned houses. He stated that no firefighter would allow a copy of the painting into his own house. Over the next few months, "The Sun" and other tabloids ran several articles on house fires suffered by people who had owned the painting. By the end of November, belief in the painting's curse was widespread enough that "The Sun" was organizing mass bonfires of the paintings, sent in by readers. To lift the curse it is said you must give the painting to another or reunite the boy and the girl and hang them together. It was later found out that the prints were treated with some varnish containing fire repellant, and that the string holding the painting to the wall would be the first to perish, resulting in the painting landing face down on the floor and thus being protected. Meanwhile, the normal effect of mass-producing an image had been distorted by the weight of superstition inflicted on it by a tabloid newspaper. After sandpapering away the original heads, Nick DEVEREUX replaced them with drawings of sculptures he had made out of paper. Thus, the subject matter is obscured and the remaining qualities of the original image are accentuated.
Nick Devereux
Untitled (Bragolin V)
2011
pastel on digital pigment print on rag paper
79 x 65.5 centimeters
Unique
For his series "Untitled (Bragolins)" Nick DEVEREUX used reproductions of a group of mass-produced and highly popular paintings that were known as "Crying Boys". The paintings feature a variety of tearful children looking morosely straight ahead; they were made by Bruno AMADIO (commonly known as BRAGOLIN) during the post Second World War period in Venice, Italy. On September 4, 1985, the British tabloid newspaper "The Sun" reported that a firefighter from Yorkshire was claiming that undamaged copies of the painting were frequently found amidst the ruins of burned houses. He stated that no firefighter would allow a copy of the painting into his own house. Over the next few months, "The Sun" and other tabloids ran several articles on house fires suffered by people who had owned the painting. By the end of November, belief in the painting's curse was widespread enough that "The Sun" was organizing mass bonfires of the paintings, sent in by readers. To lift the curse it is said you must give the painting to another or reunite the boy and the girl and hang them together. It was later found out that the prints were treated with some varnish containing fire repellant, and that the string holding the painting to the wall would be the first to perish, resulting in the painting landing face down on the floor and thus being protected. Meanwhile, the normal effect of mass-producing an image had been distorted by the weight of superstition inflicted on it by a tabloid newspaper. After sandpapering away the original heads, Nick DEVEREUX replaced them with drawings of sculptures he had made out of paper. Thus, the subject matter is obscured and the remaining qualities of the original image are accentuated.
Nick Devereux
Untitled (C.N. 1890)
2011
pastel on digital pigment print on ultrasmooth rag paper
221 x 152.5 centimeters
Unique
Presented flat wise on a pedestal, "Tiepolo" takes inspiration from one of Giambattista TIEPOLO's fresco that used to be in the Chiesa degli Scalzi church in Venice, Italy. The fresco was bombed during the First World War and the only visual image that remains is the original photograph taken by Carlo NAYA around 1890. Nick DEVEREUX calculated the positions of the figures in the painting in relation to each other in a small model reproduction of the scene. He then used white lengths of wood to simulate the painting's composition in 3 dimensions by using the heads of the figures as guide lines. The subject matter of the work is masked while the dynamics of the composition are highlighted.
Nick Devereux
Version (Raoul Walsh 1914)
2011
pastel on digital pigment print on bamboo paper
144.5 x 110 centimeters
Unique
The diptych "Version (Raoul Walsh 1914)" uses two reproductions of images from a sequence of photos shot during the film "The Life of General Villa", which was produced by the American Mutual Film Company in 1914. General Villa was the protagonist of a (now destroyed) film propagating his own life. Directed by the actor Raoul WALSH, who played the younger Pancho VILLA in the film, the film can be characterized as half-documentary and half-fiction work, as it combines real battle scenes and fictional ones; the limits between reality and fiction are consequently blurred. On both photographs used by Nick DEVEREUX, Pancho VILLA is shown riding a horse, but his figure is replaced by a drawing of a sculpture that recreates the notion of movement, emphasizing the idea of someone re-enacting oneself.
