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From: Rudi Scholl
Category: Exhibitions
Date: 26 November 2003
WHR was perhaps the first artist i was conscious of in my childhood - or the first one i liked? And my curiosity in this exhibition was certainly roused by these distant memories: the comedy germans pricking the heads off onions to make the english cry (prophetic?), noah's animals crammed into his patchwork, bodged ark. But i didn't know WHR was also more than a gadget cartoonist. His illustrations for turn of the century gift books and the chirascuro (?) ink drawings for a Shakespear series are breathtakingly good, both in technique and expression. He had an enviable command of line and first time precision which allowed his imagination to realise almost any idea, from any perspective. He was able to call upon an infinite knowledge of human expression and morph it into surreal fantasy or satire or animate the ravages of age and madness. And thankfully there were also a few of his jokey illustrations to satisfy that child who began all those years ago to take an interest in art and yearns to be as good as WHR. What a pleasure this exhibition was on such a miserably damp day - but don't wait till it rains before you go...
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