Getting to Know Patrick Hughes

Next in our 'Getting to Know...' series the quirky and wonderful artist Patrick Hughes. As well as having some now very rare prints by Patrick dating from the 80S, CCA have been delighted to publish new silkscreen editions with him in recent years. Patrick currently has a retrospective of his work '50 Years in Show Business' at Flowers Gallery, London.

        CC: Describe your ethos as an artist/How would you describe your work?

        PH: My work is oxymoronic, bitter/sweet, serious/funny, simple/complicated, reasonable/daft.

        CC: What Inspires you?

        PH: I am inspired by artists and writers of a similar persuasion: Magritte, Klee, Duchamp, Kakfka, Lewis Caroll, Samuel Butler.

        CC: Did you always want to be an artist?

        PH: No I wanted to be a writer, but I thought NF Simpson's play One Way Pendulum was so perfect that I thought I should be a                  paradoxer in art where there was not so much competition.

       CC: What is an average day in the life of Patrick Hughes?

       PH: I get up at 6.30, my assistants come at 8 when I make them tea or coffee, lunch is 12.20 to 1.10, the studio colses at 4.40 Monday             to  Friday. In the evening TV or theatre or reading with my wife Di. Running around the park, playing table tennis five times a week.

      CC: Who is your favourite artist/ artwork|?

      PH: Paul Klee is my favourite artist because I never knew what he was going to do next. March of the Viaducts is one of his best.

Colour Process (1984)

 CC: What do you think of the Arts in Britain today?

PH: I never think about the Arts in Britain today, I am only interested in what I am interested in. I read the paper cover to cover every day, and watch the TV news. I am not British, I have got a Citizen of the World passport, and I am as interested in British art as I am in Croatian art or Malaysian art: nationalism is the biggest mistake of the nineteenth century, or any century.

CC: What is your favourite exhibition space?

PH: The space inside your head.

CC: What do you consider to be your greatest achievement?

PH: To have always done what I wanted to do, without studying at an art school. To have become learned by reading books silently.

CC: Which talent would you most like to possess?

PH: To run like the wind.

CC: One book to take to a desert island...

PH: A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh

CC: How would you like people to view your work in the future?

PH: Profound, witty, imaginative, unique.

CC: Name a current exhibition that you would like to see/would recommend

PH: Magritte in Liverpool, Hughes in Cork Street and Shoreditch (Flowers Gallery).

Paper Roses (1985)

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