Warhol /Hawkins /Meese at Pollack Fine Art

Written by Hugh Ronald Tuesday, 18 January 2011 22:47

London- Pollock Fine Art is pleased to present an exhibition of drawings from 1978-2006 with works by Andy Warhol, Robert Hawkins and Jonathan Meese. The exhibition is accompanied by an introductory text, What About Robert Hawkins by Glenn O’Brien. * The gallery will display over twenty five drawings in various media. Notable is the inclusion of two museum-quality Warhol graphite on paper portraits of Queen Elizabeth. With these stylish works, Warhol made sly alterations to HRH’s likeness. Hawkins royals are fabulous in a different way; an extended genealogy chart named The Royal Family of the Planet of the Apes. Beginning with the coupling of two ancestral lines, there is no evolution: just gems and pathos in reversed chiaroscuro. The pure draftsmanship morphs from the visual to the cerebral, as King Omega and Queen Tang descend to Princess Tomba and Prince Bobo, begetting the Infante Tuti. Also included is the rare Lolitadzio Kotbart, by Jonathan Meese. In contrast to his recent performance at Tate Modern; this hand made book is a fusion of image and text, both intimate and poetic. Beautifully drawn in ink and hand-written in his private language, the book is trance-like and in the artist’s own words, “one of the masterpieces”. What About Robert Hawkins by Glenn O’Brien. *  " I have always been a huge fan of Robert Hawkins. I think it used to be a sort of secret thing. Like an art crush. I didn’t really know him and I guess I was sort of scared of him for years. Not that I thought he was going to knife me or bite me or anything, although he really did look like a scary punk, with a fierce Mohawk, a really good one, and raffish leather with rude stuff written on it and big paratrooper boots and major tattoos and real fang implants and a nose ring…just a sort of generally forbidding presence. He also seemed to glare a lot, but now I think he didn’t realize he was glaring. I do the same thing. It’s like when my Latin teacher threw me out of class saying “Wipe that smirk off your face Mr. O’Brien.” I didn’t even know I was doing it. I was just being natural. And that’s what Robert is. He is more than natural. He is Nature. He is more natural than just about anybody I know, but more on that later. It’s like barbed wire protecting a playground. "  "Anyway, to sum up so far: Robert Hawkins is not a big famous artist because he has resisted all attempts to make him that. And, up to a point, that was necessary and right. But now that he has a large, madcap, ferociously witty, and startling original body of work behind him. Now that he has gone through his self-crucifixion phase and resurrected himself from the dead. Now that he has allowed the smile to follow quickly the scowl. Now…I think…it’s time that he can relax and enjoy making art work on his own roving, druidical, picaroon, anarchic, swashbuckling terms. " *Glenn O'Brien is a poet, essayist, novelist, editor, TV host, stand up comic, advertising creative director and copywriter, film producer and scriptwriter, playwright, actor, commercial director, radio show host, photographer and international advice columnist. Exhibit at Pollock Fine Art Mar 28 - May 2, 2006 . Visit : www.pollockfineart.com

---

Click on logo below to add this article to your favorite Social Website ~