David Hepher: 1996 by Edward Lucie-Smith (Paperback, 1996) for sale online

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David Hepher is a painter of remarkable originality. In this age of increasing polarity in contemporary art, his work lies at the junction between the conceptual and the traditional. Hepher's subject matter, ranging from near life-size suburban house-fronts to monumental tower blocks, allies him with the avant garde; so too does his frequent use of real architectural materials such as concrete. Yet his mastery also places him in a more conservative camp. As a consequence he has perhaps still to be fully recognised by those who champion the 'cutting edge' in art. Edward Lucie-Smith's study helps redress the imbalance. It charts Hepher's career, from his enthusiastic reception at a British Council exhibition in Paris in 1973 to the powerful depictions of modernist monoliths in his most recent work. It also examines Hepher's place in the artistic arena, his increasing importance as one of Britain's most striking and sophisticated artists. REVIEW: David Hepher portrays the metropolis as a vast asphalt jungle. Monumental in scale, his concrete-encrusted canvases mix photographed and painted tower blocks with emblems of the ghetto - ferro concrete, graffiti by Millwall supporters and claustrophobia. Many of the paintings sample kids' drawings and cityscapes by Italian Renaissance masters. The effect is disorienting - as if various no-go zones had seeped into and subsumed the gallery. (excerpt, Tania Guha, Time Out, 17-24 February 1999) EXCERP: The tower-block series proved, like most enterprises of this sort, to have a trajectory of it's own. Paintings on this scale, containing this amount of details, are, not surprisingly, immensely laborious to paint. At a certain point, hepher Started to feel that the amount of details they demanded was getting in the way of his need for personal artistic expression.