The art of Samuel Herbert

Skulduggery. Oil on canvas, 150cm x 120cm

The art of Samuel Herbert

The art of Samuel Herbert is concerned with exploring what he describes as an ’empathetic moment’, whereby the viewer can make a connection with the people or scenes depicted in his paintings. His work confronts topics that have a resonating discomfort in contemporary British society, namely class and the inheritance of colonialism. Herbert has never sought to use these works as a platform for his own feelings on these issues but rather he makes paintings of images that exploit the gap between nostalgic recognition and revulsion at what is being depicted.

The Gallery. Oil on canvas, 210cm x 160cm, 2004

Herbert employs a painterly language that references traditional figurative painting and photographic appropriation. The paintings themselves are executed in a monochrome palette and applied using a variety of implements (including his fingers) on a prepared, uncannily flat, canvas surface. The resulting works are closer to drawing with paint than traditional painting and can resemble academic under paintings.

Arm Chair Heroes. Oil on canvas, 130cm x 120cm, 2003

Previous motifs have included fox hunting, private members’ clubs and various scenes from the British Empire. More recent work has sought to explore the appropriation of tribal art by early 20th century modernism. In these newer works Herbert has attempted to remove as many of the signifiers revealing the cultural origin of the source imagery as possible so as to raise questions in the audience’s mind as to the context and background of the figures depicted in his art. This removal of context is not a strategy for denying or obscuring the value of the cultural source but rather to open up a space for an audience to engage with a broader range of issues regarding identity, appropriation and empathy with the other.

Powerhouse. Oil on canvas, 150cm x 120cm, 2008

© paintings samuel herbert

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