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.