Hunt Slonem

Contents

Hunt Slonem The Bigger Picture Text and photography copyright © 2021 DTR Modern Galleries Hunt Slonem Copyright © 2021: in each of the Hunt Slonem works of art, photography provided by the Artist, is the property of Hunt Slonem Book Copyright © 2021 Scala Arts Publishers, Inc. First published in 2021 by Scala Arts Publishers, Inc. 1301 Avenue of the Americas 10th floor New York, NY 10019 USA www.scalapublishers.com Scala – New York – London DTR Modern Galleries 458 West Broadway Street New York, NY 10012

Distributed outside of the premises of the Client in the book trade by ACC Art Books 6 West 18th Street 4th Floor New York, NY 10011

Book Curator and Editor Ghia Truesdale

ISBN 978 1 78551 369 5

Front cover: Luna’s Away Red Sea, 2020, oil on canvas, 66 x 99 inches

All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the DTR Modern Galleries and Scala Arts Publishers, Inc. Printed and bound in China

Design Studio A Alexandria, VA

Frontispiece: Chinese Over, 2020, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches Back cover: Moluccans (Cockatoos), 2020, oil on canvas, 72 x 84 inches Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: a catalog record for this book is available from the publisher. Names: Truesdale, Ghia, editor. | Heartney, Eleanor. | Vassilev, Ted. | Wei, Lilly. | Obrist, Hans Ulrich. | Slonem, Hunt. Works. Selections. Title: Hunt Slonem : the bigger picture / book editor, Ghia Truesdale. Description: New York : DTR Modern Galleries in association with Scala Arts Publishers, Inc., 2021.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021013393 | ISBN 9781785513695 Subjects: LCSH: Slonem, Hunt—Themes, motives.

Classification: LCC N6537.S577 A4 2021 | DDC 709.2—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc. gov/2021013393

Hunt Slonem’s Expanding Universe—Gesamtkunstwerk Ted Vassilev, DTR Modern Galleries 7 Hunt Slonem: Time Traveler Eleanor Heartney 11 A Year of Magical Painting Lilly Wei 17 Hunt Slonem in Conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist Hans Ulrich Obrist 22 Artworks 27 Exhibitions, Collections, and Acknowledgments 126

Contents

Hunt Slonem The Bigger Picture Text and photography copyright © 2021 DTR Modern Galleries Hunt Slonem Copyright © 2021: in each of the Hunt Slonem works of art, photography provided by the Artist, is the property of Hunt Slonem Book Copyright © 2021 Scala Arts Publishers, Inc. First published in 2021 by Scala Arts Publishers, Inc. 1301 Avenue of the Americas 10th floor New York, NY 10019 USA www.scalapublishers.com Scala – New York – London DTR Modern Galleries 458 West Broadway Street New York, NY 10012

Distributed outside of the premises of the Client in the book trade by ACC Art Books 6 West 18th Street 4th Floor New York, NY 10011

Book Curator and Editor Ghia Truesdale

ISBN 978 1 78551 369 5

Front cover: Luna’s Away Red Sea, 2020, oil on canvas, 66 x 99 inches

All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the DTR Modern Galleries and Scala Arts Publishers, Inc. Printed and bound in China

Design Studio A Alexandria, VA

Frontispiece: Chinese Over, 2020, oil on canvas, 48 x 48 inches Back cover: Moluccans (Cockatoos), 2020, oil on canvas, 72 x 84 inches Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: a catalog record for this book is available from the publisher. Names: Truesdale, Ghia, editor. | Heartney, Eleanor. | Vassilev, Ted. | Wei, Lilly. | Obrist, Hans Ulrich. | Slonem, Hunt. Works. Selections. Title: Hunt Slonem : the bigger picture / book editor, Ghia Truesdale. Description: New York : DTR Modern Galleries in association with Scala Arts Publishers, Inc., 2021.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021013393 | ISBN 9781785513695 Subjects: LCSH: Slonem, Hunt—Themes, motives.

Classification: LCC N6537.S577 A4 2021 | DDC 709.2—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc. gov/2021013393

Hunt Slonem’s Expanding Universe—Gesamtkunstwerk Ted Vassilev, DTR Modern Galleries 7 Hunt Slonem: Time Traveler Eleanor Heartney 11 A Year of Magical Painting Lilly Wei 17 Hunt Slonem in Conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist Hans Ulrich Obrist 22 Artworks 27 Exhibitions, Collections, and Acknowledgments 126

Hunt Slonem’s Expanding Universe— Gesamtkunstwerk

Ted Vassilev, DTR Modern Galleries

I

t is a mistake to qualify Hunt Slonem merely as a pop artist, neo-pop, or neo-expressionist.

opposite

As an art connoisseur and gallerist, I believe Slonem to be a quintessential conceptual art-

Abraham’s New Peace Plan, 2020, oil on canvas,

ist. With breathtaking ease, he liberates a menagerie into his own exquisitely constructed

intellectual cages composed of his total body of artwork. Lush abundance plumps Slonem’s themes as he explores a starvation of tension that makes us crave tensile reality. It’s true what many an art historian and art critic has said about him, but he is so much more than any given segment of his career. The assessments are spot on regarding his parrots, bunnies, butterflies, tortoises, orchids, or entire estates—and yet to label him in but one category is insufficient to honor the greater whole that he has crafted with his deliberate intellect; the “Man of Many

Mansions” furnishes an expanding bigger picture that is the sum of its parts.1 Deep down, Hunt Slonem borrows from the visual language and proficiencies of neoexpressionism and pop. Yet, it is censurable to constrain with a label Slonem’s lavish slatherings of oil paint and pigmented color that resonate his irrepressible verve. The totality of his work challenges the triggers that really wow the eye and brain. James Rosenquist, too, was labeled a pop artist, even as he played with scale and provoked new perspectives, as does Slonem with his premeditated conceptual outcomes that deconstruct historic definitions of what is. What was perceived to be is revealed instead to be another reality entirely. Slonem does not slavishly record what is; the underlying force of his reason is intellectual construct that runs rampant upon all available surfaces. The manifestations of this construct depict his philosophies using the extremely rich language of expressionism. Slonem wields passionate, almost violent brush strokes like those of a figurative painter, typical of neo-expressionism. And true to pop, Slonem’s

48 × 48 inches, Photograph by Idlewild Union

Hunt Slonem’s Expanding Universe— Gesamtkunstwerk

Ted Vassilev, DTR Modern Galleries

I

t is a mistake to qualify Hunt Slonem merely as a pop artist, neo-pop, or neo-expressionist.

opposite

As an art connoisseur and gallerist, I believe Slonem to be a quintessential conceptual art-

Abraham’s New Peace Plan, 2020, oil on canvas,

ist. With breathtaking ease, he liberates a menagerie into his own exquisitely constructed

intellectual cages composed of his total body of artwork. Lush abundance plumps Slonem’s themes as he explores a starvation of tension that makes us crave tensile reality. It’s true what many an art historian and art critic has said about him, but he is so much more than any given segment of his career. The assessments are spot on regarding his parrots, bunnies, butterflies, tortoises, orchids, or entire estates—and yet to label him in but one category is insufficient to honor the greater whole that he has crafted with his deliberate intellect; the “Man of Many

Mansions” furnishes an expanding bigger picture that is the sum of its parts.1 Deep down, Hunt Slonem borrows from the visual language and proficiencies of neoexpressionism and pop. Yet, it is censurable to constrain with a label Slonem’s lavish slatherings of oil paint and pigmented color that resonate his irrepressible verve. The totality of his work challenges the triggers that really wow the eye and brain. James Rosenquist, too, was labeled a pop artist, even as he played with scale and provoked new perspectives, as does Slonem with his premeditated conceptual outcomes that deconstruct historic definitions of what is. What was perceived to be is revealed instead to be another reality entirely. Slonem does not slavishly record what is; the underlying force of his reason is intellectual construct that runs rampant upon all available surfaces. The manifestations of this construct depict his philosophies using the extremely rich language of expressionism. Slonem wields passionate, almost violent brush strokes like those of a figurative painter, typical of neo-expressionism. And true to pop, Slonem’s

48 × 48 inches, Photograph by Idlewild Union

A Year of Magical Painting Lilly Wei

I

n writing about Hunt Slonem’s prodigious, decades-long practice, it isn’t easy to decide

opposite

what to focus on or where to begin. I feel somewhat like a wide-eyed child in a candy store,

Moluccans (Cockatoos) (detail), 2020, oil on canvas,

beguiled by so many choices, dazzled by such splendid, even outrageous abundance. As its

creator, Slonem seems to be another such child, taking to heart Picasso and Matisse’s admoni-

tion: to be an artist, it is necessary to see all things all your life as if for the first time, as a child would. Slonem is astonishingly prolific (his output of paintings alone over this troubled past year is certain to make you feel like a slacker), fueled by an audacious, wide-ranging curiosity.

Unconstrained by rules other than his own, he magically interweaves life into his art and art into his life in eclectic, exuberant projects that are his unique tribute to the glamorous, the esoteric, the extravagant, and the imaginative.

Slonem’s ancestors have deep roots in the South and its lush landscapes, histories and myths are foundational to his sensibility. A seasoned traveler, he also spent a number of his formative years in natural paradises like Hawaii and Nicaragua, seeming to have imbibed their tropical flora and fauna straight up, absorbing their luxuriant habitats and flamboyant cultures into his being with gusto. Beauty mattered to him from the beginning, as did verve and style.

And the nonchalant, fluent blend of high and popular art was heady, liberating, all crucial to the arc of his aesthetics.

Slonem, a New York sophisticate as well as a Southern traditionalist, a materialist as well as a spiritualist, might be called a cross-disciplinary artist; he is a painter, sculptor, printmaker, and designer of international repute who meticulously, zealously restores and reinvents abandoned historic houses in Pennsylvania, New York, and Louisiana (a state that is his other

72 × 84 inches

A Year of Magical Painting Lilly Wei

I

n writing about Hunt Slonem’s prodigious, decades-long practice, it isn’t easy to decide

opposite

what to focus on or where to begin. I feel somewhat like a wide-eyed child in a candy store,

Moluccans (Cockatoos) (detail), 2020, oil on canvas,

beguiled by so many choices, dazzled by such splendid, even outrageous abundance. As its

creator, Slonem seems to be another such child, taking to heart Picasso and Matisse’s admoni-

tion: to be an artist, it is necessary to see all things all your life as if for the first time, as a child would. Slonem is astonishingly prolific (his output of paintings alone over this troubled past year is certain to make you feel like a slacker), fueled by an audacious, wide-ranging curiosity.

Unconstrained by rules other than his own, he magically interweaves life into his art and art into his life in eclectic, exuberant projects that are his unique tribute to the glamorous, the esoteric, the extravagant, and the imaginative.

Slonem’s ancestors have deep roots in the South and its lush landscapes, histories and myths are foundational to his sensibility. A seasoned traveler, he also spent a number of his formative years in natural paradises like Hawaii and Nicaragua, seeming to have imbibed their tropical flora and fauna straight up, absorbing their luxuriant habitats and flamboyant cultures into his being with gusto. Beauty mattered to him from the beginning, as did verve and style.

And the nonchalant, fluent blend of high and popular art was heady, liberating, all crucial to the arc of his aesthetics.

Slonem, a New York sophisticate as well as a Southern traditionalist, a materialist as well as a spiritualist, might be called a cross-disciplinary artist; he is a painter, sculptor, printmaker, and designer of international repute who meticulously, zealously restores and reinvents abandoned historic houses in Pennsylvania, New York, and Louisiana (a state that is his other

72 × 84 inches

Artworks

Artworks

left / Untitled, 2020, metal sculpture, 21 × 7 × 7 inches far left / Untitled, 2020, metal sculpture, 21 × 7 × 7 inches opposite / Finches (detail), 2020, oil on canvas, 77 × 60 inches

left / Untitled, 2020, metal sculpture, 21 × 7 × 7 inches far left / Untitled, 2020, metal sculpture, 21 × 7 × 7 inches opposite / Finches (detail), 2020, oil on canvas, 77 × 60 inches

48 49

New Line with Barbet, 2018, oil and acrylic with diamond dust on canvas, 40 × 40 inches

Red Mist, 2020, oil on canvas, 50 × 60.5 inches

48 49

New Line with Barbet, 2018, oil and acrylic with diamond dust on canvas, 40 × 40 inches

Red Mist, 2020, oil on canvas, 50 × 60.5 inches

60 61

above / For Jackie O Yellow, 2020, oil on wood, 30.25 × 24.25 inches opposite / Sunflowers Sunset Park, 2017, oil on canvas, 48 × 48

60 61

above / For Jackie O Yellow, 2020, oil on wood, 30.25 × 24.25 inches opposite / Sunflowers Sunset Park, 2017, oil on canvas, 48 × 48

84 85

above / Blue Bunnies, 2021, dichroic painting, 22.5 × 22.5 × 2 inches right / Cordts Mansion, Kingston, NY, Photograph by John Neitzel following pages / The Wind, 2020, oil on canvas, 60 × 40 inches; The Beginning, 2020, oil on canvas, 40 × 30 inches

84 85

above / Blue Bunnies, 2021, dichroic painting, 22.5 × 22.5 × 2 inches right / Cordts Mansion, Kingston, NY, Photograph by John Neitzel following pages / The Wind, 2020, oil on canvas, 60 × 40 inches; The Beginning, 2020, oil on canvas, 40 × 30 inches

left / A Stand-In Title Goes Here (detail), 2020, oil on canvas, 120 × 120 inches left / A Much Longer Stand-In Title Goes Here (detail), 2020, oil on canvas, 120 × 120 inches

left / A Stand-In Title Goes Here (detail), 2020, oil on canvas, 120 × 120 inches left / A Much Longer Stand-In Title Goes Here (detail), 2020, oil on canvas, 120 × 120 inches

114 115

above / Untitled, 1976, oil on canvas, 71 × 36 inches right / Guardians Offerings, 2012, oil on wood, 72 × 84 inches

114 115

above / Untitled, 1976, oil on canvas, 71 × 36 inches right / Guardians Offerings, 2012, oil on wood, 72 × 84 inches

Authors

Artist’s Acknowledgments

Ted Vassilev is the owner of DTR Modern Galleries, with locations in Boston, New York, Palm Beach, Washington, DC, and Nantucket.

He is the author of Mr. Brainwash: Franchise of the Mind (2019), Stephen Wilson: Luscious Threads (2018), and Robert Mars: Futurelics, Past is Present (2017), all published by DTR and Scala Arts Publishers.

Ted Vassilev

Gia Gogolashvili

Allison Dayka

Taylor Pope

Ghia Truesdale

Lena Falth

Lauren Orscheln

Judy Vithanza

Catherine Casanova

Maura Garcia Henriquez

Charlie Rubin

Therese Mahar

Eric Firestone

Mother Meera

Robert Garcia

Marty Roberts

Hans Ulrich Obrist

Billy O’Neill

Eleanor Heartney

Piper O’Neill

Lilly Wei

Ryan Nelson

David Weeks

Erin Peterson

Mark Millene

Chris Bolton

Eleanor Heartney is an art critic, author and editor based in New York. She has written numerous books, articles, and monographs including Postmodernism: Movements in Modern Art, Postmodern Heretics, and Art and Today. She is a contributing editor to Art in America and Artpress, as well as writing extensively on contemporary art for ARTnews, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.

128

Lilly Wei is a New York-based curator, author, and critic whose area of interest is global contemporary art, in particular, emerging art and artists.

She writes on exhibitions and biennials, and is a long-time contributor to Art in America, ARTnews, and was formerly contributing editor at Art Asia Pacific. Wei lectures on critical and curatorial practices and sits on the board of several not-forprofit art organizations.

Hans Ulrich Obrist is a Swiss art curator and critic. He is Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries in London. Before this, he was Curator of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.

Obrist has curated over 300 exhibitions and lectured internationally at academic and art institutions.

Midas, 2021, bronze sculpture, 24k gold plated, 13.5 × 7 × 9.5 inches, Photograph by Idlewild Union