Viva Lewes Issue #147 December 2018

ART
Maggi Hambling No.2, Suffolk 2018, © Juergen Teller, All rights Reserved
nail through it. It’s a stylised
screen grab from a film made
by Lucas when he was nailed
to a cross in the Philippines
in 2000.
Lucas makes a sculpture of
Hambling; Hambling paints
Lucas; Lucas films Horsley.
The Quick and the Dead is an
exhibition about how artistfriends
see one another, and
how they see themselves. Two
other members of what became
something of a gang are represented
in the show: Lucas’
partner Julian Simmons, and
German photographer Juergen
Teller. Simmons contributes
two framed eyes, staring out
from the middle of two sets of
concentric circles; Teller offers
a huge (1.5 x 2 metre) portrait
of Hambling, and another of
himself, standing naked by his
father’s graveside, swigging
beer and smoking a fag.
It’s Teller’s image of Hambling
that forms the centrepiece of
the exhibition, a rare vision
of the artist at work, half her
face hidden by the back of
the canvas she is working on,
her mascara-framed left eye
challenging the viewer. On
the opposite wall are charcoal
drawings of Teller she was
working on when the photo
was taken.
It’s all very meta, then, but
there’s much more to it than
playful self-reference. The
death of Horsley – from a drug
overdose in 2010 – looms over
the show, and a whole room
is dedicated to Hambling’s
poignant from-memory portraits
of him, painted while she
was in mourning.
Alex Leith
The Quick and the Dead is on
at Jerwood Gallery, Hastings,
till 6th Jan
Sarah Lucas, In the words of Sexton Ming Just remember when you smile There’s a skull in there, 2018
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