Viva Brighton Issue #70 December 2018

ART
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Maggi Hambling, Self-portrait, 2017 © the artist
Sebastian Horsley, Maggi Hambling, 2011 © the artist
The Quick and the Dead
When Maggi met Sarah
“I’ll just switch Maggi on for
you.”
I’m being shown round the
Jerwood exhibition The Quick
& the Dead, by its co-curator
Victoria Howarth.
It might, more prosaically, have
been named ‘When Maggi
Met Sarah’, as it was a chance
meeting between portrait artist
Maggi Hambling and YBA
Sarah Lucas that sparked the
friendship that underscores
the show.
The introduction was made by
Soho dandy Sebastian Horsley,
at the Colony Rooms on
Dean Street, in October 2005.
Both women were celebrating
their birthdays at the private
after-hours club. It must have
been quite a night.
What Victoria is switching
on is the sculpture Magi (sic,
2012), of Hambling, by Lucas.
The description of the materials
used will help you picture
it: ‘coat hanger, lightbulbs,
steel wire, electric cable, toilet
bowl’. Victoria suggests that
the bulbs represent Hambling’s
eyes; in his catalogue notes
James Cahill suggests they are
her breasts. Whatever the case,
it’s very Sarah Lucas, an artist
whose remit has always been
to shock, more than charm, to
elicit a response.
....62....
Hambling’s touchée is more
lifelike. The oils Portrait of the
Artist Sarah Lucas and Sarah
Lucas II (both 2013) flank
the sculpture. The first – all
trademark colourful swirls and
unfinished business – captures
an intense look of vulnerability
in the face of the younger
artist. The second places her
framed portrait alongside a pile
of props typical of her oeuvre:
a fried egg; stuffed breasts;
fruit; wine glasses.
The fourth work you see, in
the first of four rooms, is a
frame containing two works by
Sebastian Horsley, including
a photo of his hand with a