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Hughie O'Donoghue Exhibition Leeds Art Gallery until Nov.15th

From:     Ben Zanoe
Category: Art
Date:     24 September 2009
Time:     04:19 PM

Review:

Not certain about comparing Hughie O'Donoghue to Anselm Kiefer even if various attempts to do just
that seem to be what several newspaper art columists are clumsily attempting, maybe the golden
chromatic scale that runs through this fashion-ignorant Artist's work is sufficient justification
for the cursory glance to make a comparison to Kiefers boldly formed testaments but they are
generationally distanced and adopt quite different outlooks.  Donoghue also compares badly with the
limelight seekers of the contemporary niche marketeering artrockers, he follows a rugged plough and
lacks the hype to engage in smart arsed newsprint bollocks. The bluntly robust attributes in much of
his painting requires genuine visual debriefing on the part of the viewer, there's no Snotart
affectations going on here but I can see it's always open season for work in this semi figurative
vein. O'Donoghue's work is also subtle, there are layers but they don't always appear to be colours
and detail, detail would be too fragile for the urgency of this work, you need to see something less
subterranian if you seek concision this is a weighed, sculptural type of painting with the ability
to include the viewer in its own mythology. The unfortunate problem is that the Snotart Threadneedle
brigade will praise this work to suit their own reactionary agenda without truly knowing what the
hell is going on and as for the others clinging to their conceptual statements about Blood, death,
money, stardom, A level Art and other associated elements of arrested development, well it's like
their farting in in a thunderstorm.


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