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“When the principles of perspective are reversed and solidified into sculpted paintings something extraordinary happens; the mind is deceived into believing the impossible, that  a static painting can move of its own accord”. ~ Patrick Hughes

Patrick Hughes was born in 1939 in Birmingham, England, and currently resides in London. His artistic career spans more than four decades and is the embodiment of his investigations into perspectives and illusion as well as his belief in the power of visual rhetoric and composition as a vehicle to speak to a broad audience.

A graduate of Graham Day College in Leeds, Hughes had initially been an art professor before leaving to become a full-time independent artist.

His early work of the 1960s is characterized by his use of rainbow colors, with most pieces being playful in nature. He immediately began experimenting with the idea of position and perspective, placing objects and words back to back or side by side. By 1964 he had created his first work that personified his concept of “reverspection”: Sticking Out Broom.

“Reverspective” is a term that Patrick Hughes himself coined. It refers to an optical illusion on a three-dimensional surface where the parts of the picture which seem farthest away are, in fact, physically the nearest. This illusion is made possible by literally painting in reverse, with the result being enigmatic scenes with buildings that seem to move on their own.