In Gary Hume: The Wonky Wheel, the renowned British artist updates the genre of history painting for the twenty-first century. With the 18 paintings and three sculptures gathered in this volume--all new and never before published--Hume unveils colorful abstractions rooted in contemporary conflict and the fragility of human life. If these most recent works are, as Hume himself stresses, a form of history painting--representations of a series of "pregnant moments" connected to one of the great historical dramas of our time--Hume short-circuits this notion by rendering their historical scenes all but invisible, thus apparently declaring his disinterest in any narrative whatsoever. Nonetheless, these moments form the building blocks of the work. History’s forward progress is constant, Hume’s art proposes, but it is always wonky.

Text by: Graham Bader