Andy Hope 1930s brilliant Medley Tour reaches London's Hauser & Wirth gallery

Date
16 May 2012

In the Medley Tour, an exhibition now on show at London’s Hauser & Wirth, Berlin-based artist Andreas Hofer aka Andy Hope 1930, suggests a world populated by superheroes but this is not comic art. It’s not sequential story-telling and it’s not immediately accessible as fine art either, however, the clue is always in the name and Andy Hope 1930 adopted his because he associates “the year 1930 with both the rise of the comic book to a mass medium, and the abandonment of suprematism and Russian constructivism” – both of which are primary signifiers in his work, albeit, somewhat mixed up a là food processor.

In an interview with Bezerker Magazine, Hope stated: “I’m not so much interested in the narrative aspect of comics but more in the visual style, the writing, the title, the graphic design.” It’s the evocation of an aesthetic that he appeals with in his work, the suggestions of movement, words-as-sound, speed, the elliptical perspective and the colour scheme as well as the archetypal, iconic visual references.

The Medley series, is just that, a variety of Hope’s visual references with an extraordinary scope; not only comic artists like Steve Ditko but modernism and contemporary art and literature. His way of working makes these combinations appear superimposed and erased all at once and composed in suggestively basic arrangements of a very distinct appropriated visual vocabulary.

Above

Andy Hope 1930: Amazing 9, 2012. Acrylic on canvasboard 60 × 60 cm / 23 5/8 × 23 5/8 in

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Andy Hope 1930: Amazing 2, 2012. Lacquer and acrylic on canvasboard 60 × 60 cm / 23 5/8 × 23 5/8 in

Above

Andy Hope 1930: X-Medley 4, 2012. Acrylic and lacquer on canvasboard 60 × 60 cm / 23 5/8 × 23 5/8 in

Above

Andy Hope 1930: X-Medley 5, 2012. Acrylic on canvasboard. 60 × 60 cm / 23 5/8 × 23 5/8 in

Above

Andy Hope 1930: X-Medley 26, 2012. Lacquer on canvasboard 60 × 60 cm / 23 5/8 × 23 5/8 in

Above

Andy Hope 1930: X-Medley 18, 2012. Acrylic and lacquer on canvasboard 60 × 60 cm / 23 5/8 × 23 5/8 in

Above

Andy Hope 1930: X-Medley 1, 2012. Acrylic and lacquer on canvasboard. 80 × 60 cm / 31 1/2 × 23 5/8 in

Andy Hope 1930: Medley Tour is now on show at the Hauser & Wirth until May 26.

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About the Author

Bryony Quinn

Bryony was It’s Nice That’s first ever intern and worked her way up to assistant online editor before moving on to pursue other interests in the summer of 2012.

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