Students mark Victor Hugo anniversary with art exhibition

The exhibition, After Hugo, opened at the Gate House Gallery on 6 March and features ceramics, illustrations and collages created by students inspired by Hugo’s famous maritime novel.

Victor Hugo wrote and published The Toilers of the Sea while living in Guernsey during his exile, dedicating the novel to the island and its people. Now, 160 years later, the work continues to inspire a new generation of artists and writers.

Charlie Buchanan, art teacher at Elizabeth College, said the school’s Victor Hugo project has been running for several years and encourages students to explore the author’s creativity beyond his writing.

“Our Victor Hugo project has been running for a couple of years now. It’s a chance for the students to get to know Victor Hugo not just as a writer but also as a visual artist,” he said.

“Hugo was a polymath who excelled in so many areas, not least the visual arts. He was an early adopter of abstraction, and his atmospheric ink work has proved a wonderful starting point for our students to create their own illustrative work inspired by his epic The Toilers of the Sea.”

Students produced photographic work and used a range of sources to develop pieces inspired by the novel’s themes and imagery. Three teachers led their own versions of the project, resulting in a wide range of artwork, including three-dimensional illustrative pieces in ceramics.

Year 10 student Sophia Kemp’s watercolour painting, featured on the exhibition’s programme, focuses on the octopus that the novel’s protagonist, Gilliatt, faces.

“I think it’s really important to value old artists because they have lots of history and context behind their work so we can learn a lot,” she said.

“I particularly liked how Hugo described the octopus as a devil fish and a monster, which you can really see through other pieces that the class has produced.”

Pictured: Year 10 student Sophia Kemp