ARTIST:

Annie Kevans

Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe
Annie Kevans
Ion Antonescu, Romania
Annie Kevans
Hugo Banzer, Bolivia
Annie Kevans
Humberto Branco, Brazil
Annie Kevans
Nicolae Ceausescu, Romania
Annie Kevans
Ngo Dinh Diem, Vietnam
Annie Kevans
Francois Duvalier, Haiti
Annie Kevans
Jean-Claude Duvalier, Haiti
Annie Kevans
Francisco Franco, Spain
Annie Kevans
Hissene Habre, Chad
Annie Kevans
Adolf Hitler, Germany
Annie Kevans
Annie Kevans’ paintings depict an ideal of innocence – the doe-eyed, rosy-cheeked faces of young boys – in a palette and handling that are carefully chosen: colour is washed-out and delicate, the brush applied like the tender touch of a loved one. Yet the titles come as a shock: Joseph Stalin, Soviet Union. Adolf Hitler, Germany. Mao Zedong, China. These are the faces (some actual, some invented) of dictators as children.
Saddam Hussein, Iraq
Annie Kevans
Radovan Karadzic, Serbia
Annie Kevans
Alexander Lukashenka, Belarus
Annie Kevans
Their titles are premonitions: that child’s face isn’t “Adolf Hitler”, obviously; none of these children are Hitler, or Stalin, or Mao yet. The disjunction – what we know now, what we didn’t know then – calls the mind the old argument about going back in time to kill Hitler; but his soulful blue eyes brim with innocence: even Hitler was a child once. Kevans plays on our weakness for the apparent innocence of the young face, drawing on the Victorian idealisation of childhood still very much in vogue when many of these men were young. Those eyes – invariably the darkest, most substantial part of each painting – draw sympathy in a way a cartoon cat on a greetings card might; there’s a kitschy sentimentality to the paintings that runs deliberately at odds with their titles. Those dark eyes hold the viewer in place. Frozen like this, these children might never amount to anything.
Ferdinand Marcos, Philippines
Annie Kevans
Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia
Annie Kevans
Idi Amin, Uganda
Annie Kevans
Benito Mussolini, Italy
Annie Kevans
Ante Pavelic, Croatia
Annie Kevans
Pol Pot, Cambodia
Annie Kevans
Efrain Rios Montt, Guatemala
Annie Kevans
Joseph Stalin, Soviet Union
Annie Kevans
Alfredo Stroessner, Paraguay
Annie Kevans
Mohamed Suharto, Indonesia
Annie Kevans
Kim II Sung, North Korea
Annie Kevans
Hendrik Verwoerd, South Africa
Annie Kevans
Jorge Rafael Videla, Argentina
Annie Kevans
Ne Win, Burma
Annie Kevans
Yasuhiko Asaka, Japan
Annie Kevans
Text by Ben Street
Mao Zedong, China
Annie Kevans
Boys [30 parts]
Annie Kevans
Ferdinand Marcos, Philippines
Annie Kevans
Idi Amin, Uganda
Annie Kevans
Ion Antonescu, Romania
Annie Kevans
Hugo Banzer, Bolivia
Annie Kevans
Humberto Branco, Brazil
Annie Kevans
Nicolae Ceausescu, Romania
Annie Kevans
Francois Duvalier, Haiti
Annie Kevans
Jean-Claude Duvalier, Haiti
Annie Kevans
Francisco Franco, Spain
Annie Kevans
Hissene Habre, Chad
Annie Kevans
Adolf Hitler, Germany
Annie Kevans
Saddam Hussein, Iraq
Annie Kevans
Kim II Sung, North Korea
Annie Kevans
Radovan Karadzic, Serbia
Annie Kevans
Alexander Lukashenka Belarus
Annie Kevans
Ngo Dinh Diem, Vietnam
Annie Kevans
Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia
Annie Kevans
Benito Mussolini, Italy
Annie Kevans
Ante Pavelic, Croatia
Annie Kevans
Pol Pot, Cambodia
Annie Kevans
Efrain Rios Montt, Guatemala
Annie Kevans
Joseph Stalin, Soviet Union
Annie Kevans
Alfredo Stroessner, Paraguay
Annie Kevans
Mohamed Suharto, Indonesia
Annie Kevans
Hendrik Verwoerd, South Africa
Annie Kevans
Jorge Rafael Videla, Argentina
Annie Kevans
Ne Win, Burma
Annie Kevans
Yasuhiko Asaka, Japan
Annie Kevans
Mao Zedong, China
Annie Kevans
Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe
Annie Kevans
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