Curwen Gallery Blog: Brendan Hansbro

4- 27 September 2014

Brendan Hansbro presents a playful new collection of animal wood engravings. The collection is a menagerie of quirky illustrations coloured with the artist’s characteristic mischievous humour. They are impish and cheeky whilst at the same time retaining a timeless, archetypal quality. In a similar way to Hansbro’s own personality, these prints appear irreverent whilst simultaneously alluding to more profound ideas.

Octopus, wood engraving 20 x 23.5cm, £95 (framed)

Penguin, wood engraving, 23.5 x 20 cm, £95 (framed)

Each animal is in possession of a unique symbolic character and inhabits a common universe. When discussing these characters with Hansbro it became apparent that they are in fact parts of his own personality, wearing his expressions and often looking like him. They are elements of his psyche dressed up as caricatures and, if given further attention, are likely to evolve into elements of a personal myth.

Although at first glance they look “cute” these prints reflect a lot about the artist. They are far more meaningful than he would likely be comfortable admitting. In a first meeting to discuss the show he mentioned that the penguin was “depressed” and that the frog had a “personality disorder,” suggesting that Hansbro is fairly aware of what these characters get up to in his head when he is pretending not to look.

Dinosaur, wood engraving, 23.5 x 20 cm, £95 (framed)

These works may be a surprise to fans of his more recent gothic drawings (shown in his last show with Curwen Gallery, Pugin’s Dream in 2012) as they are quite a departure from his instantly recognisable style. These wood engravings continue an earlier trajectory begun in the 90s with his popular series of birds. In “Animals” Hansbro shows a refinement in his skills as a printmaker and expands upon the characterisation of his subjects to create a more comprehensive world of new characters

Meerkat, wood engraving, 23.5 x 20 cm, £95 (framed)

Interestingly, for Hansbro, he feels this is the most formal work he has done, mentioning that wood engraving is “the final resolution of drawing.” These works follow a tradition of popular wood engraving pioneered by 18^th Century printmaker Thomas Bewick who also favoured the natural world as his subject matter. Hansbro’s new work reinvigorates the tradition of popular wood engraving with a whimsical contemporary slant.