Artist: Manuel Hughes
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Creation Year: c. Late 1970s
Dimensions: 10 x 12 inches
Style: Still Life
Period: Late 20th Century
Condition: Excellent
Description: This dynamic trompe l’oeil still life by Manuel Hughes, painted in the late 1970s, is a striking example of the artist’s ability to transform everyday Americana into a rich visual experience. A major African American painter known for his life like detail and spectacular composition, Hughes showcases a lineup of familiar vintage containers: True Blue, Bovil, Del Monte Coffee, arranged with a deliberate eye for balance, color, and nostalgia. Below them, a bold Phillies advertisement reads “5¢” and adds a pop of graphic flair.
Hughes masterfully captures the worn textures and aged patinas of the labels, using oil paint to mimic the look of real metal and paper with astonishing accuracy. The work is both signed in script on one of the cans and thumbprinted in pigment at the base, marking it as a personal and fully realized composition.
Hughes’s paintings celebrate the visual language of American consumer culture while honoring the traditions of illusionism and still life. His ability to render surface detail with such sensitivity places him among the foremost realist painters of his time, and this piece stands as a testament to both his technical skill and his artistic voice.
Artist: Manuel Hughes
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Creation Year: c. Late 1970s
Dimensions: 10 x 12 inches
Style: Still Life
Period: Late 20th Century
Condition: Excellent
Description: This dynamic trompe l’oeil still life by Manuel Hughes, painted in the late 1970s, is a striking example of the artist’s ability to transform everyday Americana into a rich visual experience. A major African American painter known for his life like detail and spectacular composition, Hughes showcases a lineup of familiar vintage containers: True Blue, Bovil, Del Monte Coffee, arranged with a deliberate eye for balance, color, and nostalgia. Below them, a bold Phillies advertisement reads “5¢” and adds a pop of graphic flair.
Hughes masterfully captures the worn textures and aged patinas of the labels, using oil paint to mimic the look of real metal and paper with astonishing accuracy. The work is both signed in script on one of the cans and thumbprinted in pigment at the base, marking it as a personal and fully realized composition.
Hughes’s paintings celebrate the visual language of American consumer culture while honoring the traditions of illusionism and still life. His ability to render surface detail with such sensitivity places him among the foremost realist painters of his time, and this piece stands as a testament to both his technical skill and his artistic voice.
