A Voluptuary under the Horrors of Digestion

Taking satirical Georgian and Regency illustrations as his starting point, British artist Charlie Billingham recasts historic imagery with surprising warps of colour, form and motif. A Voluptuary under the Horrors of Digestion (2012) stretches a 1792 caricature of Prince Regent George IV by James Gillray – an alumnus of the Royal Academy, like Billingham himself – almost to the point of abstraction. Known in his time as ‘the Prince of Whales,’ George’s vast belly is further engorged in Billingham’s distended version, and the lurid colour scheme is heightened, paint dripping as if bursting at the seams. Whilst the original illustrations were often intended for satirical or political purposes, Billingham wryly divorces them from their historical context, transforming them into ornamental, decorative fragments. Included in the Saatchi Gallery’s 2013 group show New Order: British Art Today after exhibiting at the Royal Academy of Arts the previous year,Billingham has since shown his work in institutions including the Capodimonte Museum, Naples and Inverleith House, Edinburgh. He mounted his first solo museum exhibition last year at the Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Mexico.