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Lot Essay
The raw aggression of the statement 'If You Cant Take A Joke You Can Get The Fuck Out Of My House' is immediately communicated through it's shouty capitalized script, yet also confronts the viewer by stealth. Like his layered silk-screened pattern paintings, Wool's text paintings are knowingly evasive. The individual words of Untitled (F48) are subsumed into an overall grid composition that makes the phrase difficult to decode, requiring the reader to slow down in order to decipher the message. Yet once read the exact intent of the message remains elusive. One is not quite sure if Wool is playing with us, but the statement, though expressing an attitude of resistance to the viewer, simultaneously acknowledges the necessity of their participation in order for the work to be considered art.
Executed in 1992, Untitled (F48) recalls a series work created four years earlier, where Wool adopted the one-line jokes made famous by his friend and collaborator Richard Prince. The phrases, 'I never had a pen to my name so I changed my name', and 'I went to see a psychiatrist, he said tell me everything, I did, and now he's doing my act', were appropriated by Prince from popular culture, as a way of destabilizing the idea of art as a highbrow academic pursuit. Wool's further appropriation of the jokes deliberately alienated him from the idea of the artist as singular creative genius. Wool's phrases are often culled from overheard conversations or popular culture, questioning the notion of originality. His seemingly nihilistic approach to image making challenges the viewer's right to expect anything from painting. Untitled (F48) directly relates the joke series, seemingly to act in defence of the earlier work. Unlike the one-liners, however, Untitled (F48) turns the joke on the audience. The combative statement, 'If You Cant Take A Joke You Can Get The Fuck Out Of My House' goads the viewer, it directly questions whether they are part of the in-crowd and suggests, if not, then it's their loss.
Executed in 1992, Untitled (F48) recalls a series work created four years earlier, where Wool adopted the one-line jokes made famous by his friend and collaborator Richard Prince. The phrases, 'I never had a pen to my name so I changed my name', and 'I went to see a psychiatrist, he said tell me everything, I did, and now he's doing my act', were appropriated by Prince from popular culture, as a way of destabilizing the idea of art as a highbrow academic pursuit. Wool's further appropriation of the jokes deliberately alienated him from the idea of the artist as singular creative genius. Wool's phrases are often culled from overheard conversations or popular culture, questioning the notion of originality. His seemingly nihilistic approach to image making challenges the viewer's right to expect anything from painting. Untitled (F48) directly relates the joke series, seemingly to act in defence of the earlier work. Unlike the one-liners, however, Untitled (F48) turns the joke on the audience. The combative statement, 'If You Cant Take A Joke You Can Get The Fuck Out Of My House' goads the viewer, it directly questions whether they are part of the in-crowd and suggests, if not, then it's their loss.