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“Nerja 1957” by Jack Hughes
Ref: 4466
A refugee orphan barefoot carrying all he owns in a peasant bark-woven basket fleeing war or poverty. The emotive content and the plaintive expression reminds me of the boy on the U2 album cover, “War”. But this is a scene referring to the Spanish Civil War evidently a view back to the time of the Civil War itself and to the atrocities of 1936-7, the Nationalist uprising, which subjected many Republican sympathising Spanish towns to fierce reprisals. When Malaga fell the headquarters of the Republican militia moved along the coast to Nerja, and the town was bombed from the air, even the navy was called in shell to strategic points, but also quite indiscriminately, civilians, the ever increasing column of refugees who were fleeing along the coast road towards Almeria.
This is a work that testifies once again to the huge influence of Picasso amongst advanced artists of the 20th century from the assimilation of Cubism in the style of representation to the subject matter itself which is obviously reminiscent of Picasso’s famous, “Guernica”. But Jack Hughes was an artist who had achieved his own typical representation style too, as you can see here in the figure of the boy. The painting is as found, and would benefit from a clean, otherwise sound condition and in a good original oak frame.
American c.1950s
H: 56cm (22.0in)
W: 70cm (27.6in)
D: 2.5cm (1.0in)
£290
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