HENRIETTA SIMSON

Bad Government (After Lorenzetti)

My "work not only explores the pre-perspectival spatial construction of the frescoes, but also the relationship between art and politics, questioning contemporary art's ability to challenge political systems."

Henrietta Simson selects early Renaissance depictions of space; landscapes that provided the setting for a scene or story. She changes the format and scale, and removes all narrative elements, freeing the spaces from their historical context and translating them into a contemporary framework.

This painting is taken from Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s frescoes in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, an allegorical scene (with its partner painting in this show) describing The Effects of Good and Bad Government painted between 1337-40.

Simson, who was the only artist in the exhibition to have three works exhibited, won the award for her painting Bad Government (After Lorenzetti). She accepted the award presented by Threadneedle Executive Chairman, Simon Davies.

Henrietta Simson was born in 1971 in Crawley. She lives and works in London and studied MA Painting at Slade School of Fine Art, UCL and currently studying there for a practice-related PhD.