Hugh Mendes (b.1955) is a contemporary British artist. Since 2003, he has been working on paintings of dead cultural figures portrayed within the context of obituaries. While an obituary condenses a life into a few column inches and a single image, Mendes’ meticulous renderings serve to memorialise and venerate the deceased. The act of painting brings a degree of focus and depth to what would otherwise be fleeting moments in the press, and transmutes scraps of paper into poignant mementos or icons. 

In recent years, Mendes has turned his attention to painting other artists, typically working from their self-portraits, or portraits made by their contemporaries in place of photographic images. By presenting the artists as muses he is able to pay homage to his mentors whilst engaging with their particular style or technique. In the case of artists’ depictions of their peers, he immerses himself not in an individual’s world, but a particular scene or movement, both drawing on and contributing to its legacy. 

Mendes’ ‘Obituary Paintings’ are contemporary manifestations of the timeless themes of birth and death, and antidotes to the prevailing culture of instant gratification. Whilst meditating on impermanence, Mendes is also engaging with the cult of celebrity, grief in the media age and the enduring effects of creative practices and ideas despite the transience of human life. 

When he is not working in his studio in Hackney, Mendes teaches art at City and Guilds of London Art School and Newlyn Art School, and meditation at London Buddhist Centre. He is represented by Charlie Smith London.