Modern and Contemporary Art: Evening Sale
Live Virtual Auction, 1 April 2025
Modern and Contemporary Art: Evening Sale
About this Item
signed, dated 1997/9, and inscribed with the artist's name, the title, medium and 'He will be a wild man, his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him...' on the reverse
Notes
In the biblical narrative, Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Hagar, is a figure of exile and endurance, cast out yet divinely destined to become the ancestor of a great nation. The prophecy in Genesis 16:12—"And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him."—suggests perpetual struggle, a theme Hodgins powerfully conveys in the present lot. The divided face, half black and half white, speaks to a fractured identity, evoking themes of otherness, exclusion, and survival. The stark black and red background intensifies this sense of unrest. Through bold colour and expressive form, Hodgins transforms Ishmael into a universal symbol of displacement and resilience, a figure forced to navigate a world that both rejects and defines him.