Andrew Gilbert
“European Tribal War Idols, Waterloo, 1815”

14 October – 14 November 2015
Opening on Wednesday 14 October from 6 pm

After “Andrew, Emperor of Africa” (2011) and “Les Maîtres fous, starring Andrew and Emil Nolde” (2013), Andrew Gilbert’s third personal exhibition at Polad-Hardouin gallery merges the old continent with Africa’s ancient colonial empires through a fierce and bloody portrait gallery. Under the aegis of marshal Ney, now part of Gilbert’s peculiar pantheon, the artist obsessively and scrupulously pursues his reflection on conquest and colonial wars. In his drawings, the battle of Waterloo, whose 200th anniversary we commemorate this year, and the Napoleonic wars become the absurd stage of military feats, the unsteady socle upon which the idea of nation is built. An ensemble of sculptures will also be presented for the first time.

The Scottish artist is a true connoisseur of European history as it unfolded both in situ and through the wars of conquests, particularly in Africa and India. He uses the “feats” of military heroes to draw scenes of open cruelty, and applies the same treatment to the colonial wars of the British empire and the Napoleonic wars. What Andrew Gilbert offers here is a very personal re-elaboration of traditional historical painting, with a sharp eye and without abandoning his strident humour.

In this shooting gallery, the protagonists of all the conflicts are equal: Zulus, Suda-nese, Hottentots and Boers mingle with the victims of wars on the European soil, and the lustre of Napoleonic uniforms stands alongside the flamboyant kota masks, fetishes, and macabre trophies.

Andrew Gilbert, who has been living in Berlin for ten years, draws every day, sur-rounded by a library worthy of a historian. In these books he obsessively searches for the details which we find, in a transfigured form, in his drawings: costume decora-tions, positions of battalions, quotations, etc.

In this exhibition, Andrew Gilbert presents a sharp perspective, with neither limits nor reserves, supported by a trained and referenced trait. In this barbaric world, marked by a brutal symbolism, where savagery is not necessarily where we expect to find it, nothing escapes him. His drawings are extravagant, cruel, documented, and contemporary.