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Lot Essay
"The surface is all you get of me."-- Gary Hume
Hume's images in high gloss paint seduce yet deny so that the viewer must unfurl their own narrative. Known for his abstracted door paintings, Gary Hume spent a year in Rome in 1991 as artist-in-residence at the Barbara Gladstone studios where he began a series of collages of male figures on floral backgrounds which were inspired by the marble athletes surrounding Mussolini's Olympic Stadium. It was from here that he moved towards more figurative work.
Jealousy and Passion personifies the fatal attraction of someone who is both seductive and indifferent - who invites with a smile but gives the cold shoulder, and with the passion comes the jealousy. Painted in Hume's trademark gloss paint the figure exudes ambivalence. Albeit androgynous, muscle-bound and primed from working out, the figure is sensuous and seductive. The 'Marilyn Monroe' smile is complemented by the floral flash of crimson passion whilst green envy sits like a cat on one shoulder.
(S. Kent, Fiona Ray Gary Hume, London 1996)
Hume's images in high gloss paint seduce yet deny so that the viewer must unfurl their own narrative. Known for his abstracted door paintings, Gary Hume spent a year in Rome in 1991 as artist-in-residence at the Barbara Gladstone studios where he began a series of collages of male figures on floral backgrounds which were inspired by the marble athletes surrounding Mussolini's Olympic Stadium. It was from here that he moved towards more figurative work.
Jealousy and Passion personifies the fatal attraction of someone who is both seductive and indifferent - who invites with a smile but gives the cold shoulder, and with the passion comes the jealousy. Painted in Hume's trademark gloss paint the figure exudes ambivalence. Albeit androgynous, muscle-bound and primed from working out, the figure is sensuous and seductive. The 'Marilyn Monroe' smile is complemented by the floral flash of crimson passion whilst green envy sits like a cat on one shoulder.
(S. Kent, Fiona Ray Gary Hume, London 1996)