Throughout history in every possible art medium a
central theme has been mortality. In 1982 the great post-war British artist Nigel
Henderson had a solo exhibition in Norwich. Dominating the show were a series
of self-portraits, where the artist expressed his fears of aging. The present
work, entitled ‘The Stroke’ is typical of these disturbing works in which he
explored physical as well as psychological impairment.

In an accompanying essay entitled ‘Speculations
about Self’ he wrote of this work:

‘The
very use of the word STROKE with its remarkable multiplicity of meanings, even
in a language rich in that sort of range, had a terrible fascination for me.

I
understand that one loses control, to greater or lesser extent, over the power
of speech. In my picture...

1. The Stroke I have lost the power of speech altogether. I have turned the mouth
back to rock, a semiprecious vein in a strata of rock. The situation is
rendered the more terrible in my "mind's eye" by the sharp focus of
the good eye in the picture which indicates considerable mental activity left
without the mechanism to communicate. We don't know what we've lost until we
lose it. Obviously the red ribbon across the forehead is a metaphor for the
ruptured blood vessels in the brain.

The
green, fleshy part of the face represents the area also no longer under control
of the brain and to that extent dead.

If
it had a message it would be to urge you, me, to try to learn from Nature, to
try to adjust our diet, our regimen, our attitudes to life so that we may live
in greater conformity to "natural law" (don't press me too hard on
what I mean by that).’