Painting Hope at Ukraine Refugee Fundraiser

Event: Sunday 3 April, 5pm at St Marys Church in South Street, Bridport

This April artist Hugo Grenville will give a talk in front of his epic painting Soul by Soul and Silently which is currently being exhibited at St Marys Church in South Street, Bridport. This illustrated talk look at the history of western art in moments of crisis and war.

Hugo Grenville is a renowned British Contemporary Painter whose work stands as a symbol of promise in a world where satire and irony predominate. Like the paintings made by Bonnard and Matisse during the Second World War, his work is grounded in the need to celebrate life, and to express our sense of existence through the recognition of the transforming power of colour and light.

Hugo Grenville’s Soul by Soul and Silently was exhibited by the Société des Artistes Français at their annual Salon, the oldest and most prestigious exhibiting society in the world. Grenville’s six feet wide painting, inspired by the unfolding tragedies in Syria, Iraq and Palestine, was on display at the Grand Palais in Paris in ­­2014. The painting has an added relevance as we look on impotently as Russia unleashes a full scale military invasion of Ukraine.

The scene, which is entirely imagined, shows a displaced family gathered amongst the debris of smashed buildings: a young woman talks to a soldier, a mother holds her dead son across her lap, a girl raises her hands towards the soldier in a supplicatory gesture, and behind her an old man stares out bleakly at the viewer; in the foreground some young boys are huddled, one of them holding a baby wrapped in a blanket. In the distance the silhouettes of buildings destroyed by shellfire stand out against the sky. Whilst violence surges back and forth, the West, represented by the NATO soldier in the picture on the left, is powerless to help, impotent, terrified of the consequences. 

This is the Middle East, the cradle of civilisation, and everyone is hurtling towards the Dark Age. Religious fundamentalism is ripping apart the status quo, and ordinary families everywhere are killed and displaced, left homeless, hungry and without hope. The mother holding her dead son is based on a C14th Pieta from Spain, carved in wood; the young girl in the yellow dress is a reinterpretation of a figure in C12th Syrian Orthodox fresco; the young boy with the head bandage is “borrowed” from a Gauguin painting, the pigeons in the foreground from a Giotto fresco at Assisi; other figures are reimagined from newspaper and TV images. There is the suggestion in Soul by Soul and Silently that the instinctively human behaviour of the painting’s characters transcends its context. Grenville’s work is strikingly current, whilst evoking themes which resonate through time: loss, grief, power, suffering, anger and violence.

Hugo Grenville suggests if there is hope, “… then it lies in the decoration of the painting, the colour harmonies, in the beauty of the undamaged tree and the dignity of the little girl who sits on the muddy grass at the bottom edge of the painting.” 

“I painted this picture at the start of the Syrian civil war, and it was exhibited at the Paris Salon the following year. As we settle down to Easter in the West, it’s heart-breaking to think that war, with all its destruction, still rages, and that brutal dictators and military juntas seem to grow in strength.”

Can we also add that the painting Soul by Soul and Silently can be viewed at St Mary’s on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10am – 12pm or during any of the services.

TALK: Painting Hope by Hugo Grenville

Sunday 3 April

5pm

St Mary’s Church

TICKETS £5 ON THE DOOR OR IN ADVANCE ON EVENTBRITE

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/painting-hope-renowned-war-artist-hugo-grenville-talks-tickets

All proceeds will go to the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal through the DEC. 
Disaster Emergency Committee – Helping people who are fleeing conflict in Ukraine with shelter, food and water.

https://www.dec.org.uk

 

Hugo Grenville will be giving a talk at St Mary’s Church in South Street where this painting will be exhibited throughout Easter.

Link to a high resolution of the painting to view and download here https://assets.artworkarchive.com/image/upload/v1/user_51722/10460659_329297030528373_806761515321473292_o_vgz9db.jpg

You can also visit Hugo’s Bridport Studio for the first time next month during Dorset Arts Week – Chapel in the Garden Studio on 21 – 29 May, daily from 10 to 5pm.

For more information contact Angie Porter on 07747 758595 or email on assistant@hugogrenville.com

https://www.hugogrenville.com

Click below to view, a short film about Soul by Soul and Silently.
https://youtu.be/sXhKlW9ctoY