Lot 47
Robert Griffiths Hodgins(South African, 1920-2010)'The Interrogation Room' (2005)
12 September 2018, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £20,000 inc. premium
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Robert Griffiths Hodgins (South African, 1920-2010)
'The Interrogation Room' (2005)
signed, dated and titled (verso)
oil on canvas
90 x 90cm (35 7/16 x 35 7/16in).
signed, dated and titled (verso)
oil on canvas
90 x 90cm (35 7/16 x 35 7/16in).
Footnotes
Exhibited
London, Simon Mee Fine Art at the Arndean Gallery, 2006.
This painting was executed in 2005 and refers to the interrogation tactics used on prisoners detained at Guantanamo Bay. Earlier in the year, the case of Detainee 063 made the cover of TIME magazine.
TIME had obtained the 84-page secret interrogation log of Detainee 063. Not intended for public release, the leaked document provided the first window into the internal workings of the classified Gitmo interrogations since the detention camp opened. It spanned 50 days over the winter of 2002-3, during which 16 additional interrogation techniques were approved by the US Defense Secretary.
The log did not indicate how successful these additional measures were in obtaining intelligence. The case fuelled international debate about whether such techniques were an abuse of detainees' rights.
Hodgins' depiction of a bloody-faced, straitjacketed inmate confronts the viewer with the violence that might take place within the interrogation room. We are forced to examine our conscience, and question the legitimacy of this treatment.