Publisher's Synopsis
The Artists' Laboratory series presents the more experimental and less familiar work of contemporary artists, opening up the creative process to explore the conceptual, visual and practical issues with which they engage. For the painter Hughie O'Donoghue RA (b. 1953), this process involves research into his family's past - in particular his father's experiences in the Second World War - an ongoing project that he likens to a draughtsman's exploration of subject-matter. Seeking in his art to 'remember' events that he did not witness himself, to put 'flesh on the bones' of history, O'Donoghue unites this immersive investigation in personal and public archives with his preoccupation with art history, artefacts and mythology, creating poetic and moving works of universal significance. In this book, the fifth in the Artists' Laboratory series, O'Donoghue and his fellow Royal Academician Grayson Perry discuss ideas of remembrance and the subjective re-telling of history, while O'Donoghue himself reflects on the personal and art-historical references that inform his practice. The book will also be published in a limited edition containing a specially made print signed by the artist.
