Creator of the reverspective.

Welcome to the world of Patrick Hughes.

Patrick Hughes, Venetia, 2021 For Sale - Lougher Contemporary

b.1939

Patrick Hughes

Patrick Hughes’s paintings and wall reliefs wittily address art history and the nature of perception and perspective. He invented an optical illusion called “reverspective,” a neologism for reverse perspective. Hughes begins by constructing pyramid- or wedge-shaped blocks out of wood, which he combines into ridged panoramas. He then paints scenes into the blocks, depicting interior spaces—including museum galleries hung with iconic artworks—as well as landscapes and city views. The protruding parts of the works appear to recede, and the receding parts appear to protrude. As viewers walk by the pieces, the compositions seem to move. Hughes once remarked: “In my reverspective, you have a contradictory and paradoxical experience. I wouldn’t think they’re beautiful. I think . . . they can be awe-inspiring.”

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About the artist

Patrick Hughes (born 20 October 1939) is a British artist working in London. He is the creator of "reverspective", an optical illusion on a three-dimensional surface where the parts of the picture which seem farthest away are actually physically the nearest. Patrick was born in Birmingham, England in October 1939. His first exhibition was in 1961 and his first reverspective, Sticking-out Room, was made in 1964. Hughes' original painted reliefs are concerned with optical and visual illusions, the science of perception and the nature of artistic representation. He has written and collated three books on the visual and verbal rhetoric of the paradox and oxymoron. He has made a hundred editions of screenprints and is making his way towards a hundred editions of multiples.