This painting - of which I'm still enormously fond of - was done in 2003, the year I feel I hit my stride. It was my first large multi-figure composition, and working it out was a complete delight - from the underlying geometry, to the symbols embedded throughout, to the joy of painting all the bodies of those gents, and having it all come together.
If you are interested in purchasing the piece, simply contact me via e-mail:
jameshuctwith@gmail.com
Is this how you see the world? Have the hanging victims put themselves there willingly? Are they to be simply consumed? Are their pain and subsequent deaths meaningless? Is the man with the red arm selecting the next victim? Does he have any say in the matter? Are they all apathetic and accepting of this torture and death? The man kneeling appears to be tying his shoes - is he in the process of leaving? What are his thoughts? Is he greeting/acknowledging the arrival of the man in the foreground left who seems to be arriving? Is the observer to accept this vision of the world? Is s/he to reject it? Are you attempting to evoke a response of the observer? Shock? Another emotion? Are we to remain blase or unaffected by seeing this?
ReplyDeleteAfter years of talking a lot about why I put what I do into my artwork (trained in catalogue-numbing, profuse heaps of artspeak)...I slowly came to let people give to the work what they may, and take from it what they need. I've done my best in the way it was intended.
DeleteThe comment is ridiculous. Not of the community not interested to read your words that are very illustrative of how it's not a murder mystery dark roast campfire. Carravagio. Ghentileschi. Koons. Guernica FFS. I was there recently. Interesting. But not understanding what time place and community is represented is a big miss. It's interesting that the person who didn't paint it is imposing HIS reading on you. I'm sorry for his dark vision. Also art is not there to make you feel safe or fluffy or even does it have to address you. I'd suggest more time in study and less time in judging. You might find unknown pleasures. A Joy Division. But leave your New Order and get past the Blue Monday. BTW if you missed the constructivism there's just a man with a camera left.
ReplyDeleteOh yes. Pick up a Tarot deck too while you're learning about symbolism in art. Also you have no clue what a body does when it's dead,what colour human blood is when it's oxidized... all the things in this painting telling you that you need to relax. Also since this is huge and sold in a major gallery over a decade ago I have every confidence that James has not in fact murdered his models and gotten away with it. Someone was murdering us though. And that pain is in James' work too. MacArthur killed people we knew. He stalked me and almost killed a friend. James painted him. Should he have hidden the trauma of a real attempt at a life? Artists work hard to make meaningful decisions about their own work. This isn't an amateur or even a good artist's work. This is utterly stunning as an oil painting. The technique is almost fully expressed in his first attempt at a large composition. I don't know where you trained, but I can't begin to imagine how I would not be able to do this. Think about how you can be respectful rather than abrasive. Especially when you are coming to a work and community from the outside.
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