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M+, Hong Kong, © Estate of Antonio Mak
Artist’s mistake 畫家出錯
circa 1972
Artist’s Mistake is one of Antonio Mak’s earliest etchings. It is part of a body of two-dimensional works Mak began in the 1960s, which is comprised of ink and graphite drawings, mixed-media collages, and etchings. These are distinct from his better-known sculptural practice. Featuring motifs of horses, trees, books, ladders, steps, and chairs, these works are often inspired by the art and theories of Marcel Duchamp and by M. C. Escher’s fantastical perspectives and tessellations. Deceptively simple and sometimes nonsensical, Mak’s arrangements of figures, objects, and animals use visual puns and unusual juxtapositions to probe existential questions. Artist’s Mistake depicts a scene at a racecourse. A man looks towards the viewer through a pair of binoculars, and two horses—one black and one white—gallop away, kicking up dust behind them. A single white line, perhaps representing a railing, divides the scene horizontally. While the upper half seems to depict reality, the lower half is an illogical continuation—a ‘mistake’—with the colours of the horses’ legs switched and the legs of the figure depicted in a strange mirror image.
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