DEATH AND THE MAIDEN

Goff + Rosenthal, Berlin, Germany
Solo Exhibition, May 2007

FROM THE PRESS RELEASE: Scott Hunt’s charcoal drawings are exquisitely-rendered anachronisms, recalling faded snapshots of seemingly simpler times through the artist’s black and white palette. Darkly comic and meticulously realized, these works focus on female subjects in ironic or absurd compositions, reminding the viewer of the tragedy and conflict that invariably lurk behind even the most innocent façade.

For this body of work, Hunt drew on influences as diverse as Edward Hopper, Charles Addams, Gabriel García Márquez, Andy Warhol, Andrea Mantegna and Joyce Carol Oates. In Death and the Maiden Hunt subtly juxtaposes iconic imagery of love and beauty with fatalist symbols of death and destruction. In Gilding the Lily, a young woman reminiscent of a 1950’s pin-up model hoses down a coffin in her suburban backyard. Pursuit shows a young, almost prepubescent bride, posing on the chapel steps. Shining in her white wedding dress before the shadows of the church’s interior, butterflies surround her head, inviting the comparison of moths to a light. In many ways absurdly grotesque, Hunt’s imagery is also hauntingly beautiful and enigmatic. By borrowing source material from discarded photographs found at flea markets, Hunt is able to create narratives that are at once horrific and humorous, melancholic and joyful.

All drawings are charcoal on rag paper unless otherwise indicated.