November 2011
JAMES HUCTWITH / New Paintings / MEMORY NIGHT
November 4 – 27, 2011 / Vernissage Friday November 4 / 7 – 10pm
Statement:
This show continues my love of working with the human face and figure. It works with historical techniques and means as well, which is pretty much the unbending way I work these days. That’s a mixed blessing in the early 21st century, as being a realist romantic painter isn’t quite what it used to be. Then again, people aren’t just what they used to be, either. At least not under the surface. Or, society, either. So, maybe we’re all keeping in step.
I think it’s really interesting how synthetic our world has become, in what’s called the First World. From every angle, in every place, through every thing, there’s usually something highly artificial altering the works. This includes us, as people.
People used to have to deal quite closely with the objects of their attention. Now, we’ve got an electronic intermediary to negotiate between ourselves and a great many things. It’s not just the computer – from housepaint to bottled vitamins, hydroponic tomatoes to romance novels, flatscreen memories and emotions to programmed salespeople – we are saturated in body, mind and possibly soul, by complex manufacturing. Chemicals, money-made images, engineering, searchbots, mass psychology, virtual travel…this is all pretty fascinating.
As a ‘realist’ painter, that puts me in an interesting position.
I also think this near somewhat science-fiction reality (at least a bit sci-fi in my eyes) is what realism now has to include if it’s going to be realistic at all.
These paintings are loaded with disquiet, collisions, uncertainty and up-to-date lies. They’re mediations between extra-human or poisonous influences, I suppose, seen through the lens of the human.
All these paintings are all pretty “quiet”. They’ve been a pleasure to build considerately, taking the time to not shy away from the odd peculiarities and human sympathies that inform them. I think that the more you look at them, the more they’ll imply. I hope you enjoy them.
James Huctwith