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The Wayward Thinker

Screenprint
2007 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Trenton Doyle Hancock (born Texas, 1974) is an emerging artist with a rapidly growing international reputation. His work is now represented in major American museum collections, including the Brooklyn Museum, MoMA (NY), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney. His work is largely figurative and narrative, exploring a personal mythology which draws heavily on biblical influences that have their origins in his childhood in a Christian household in Texas. In a series of paintings, The Wayward Thinker, he tells the story of St Sesom (Moses backwards) and the Cult of Colours. 'Behold Sesom, I am painter and these are colours' begins the visual awakening of St Sesom. This print is related to that series, and shows a variety of hands, drawn in different styles. The hand at the centre holds three eggs - labeled Y, G and B, for Yellow, Green and Blue. A parable of creation (and of the artist's own visual awakening), it also explores the gestural expressiveness of hands as indicators of character, action and artistic influences, Hancock has said "I draw a lot of hands, simply for the fact that I can....I always thought it was a challenge to see if I could emote just by drawing them." Though drawn in different styles, each of the hands has the energy and character that is typically found in cartoons and caricatures. They are clearly kin to the grotesque disembodied hands, eyes and hobnail-booted feet of Philip Guston's late work. The eccentric typography which frames the hands clearly mirrors the 'waywardness' of the title.

Though Hancock is first and foremost a painter, he works regularly with print for what it can bring to the development of his iconography; he has said "...prints are motors to get to the next work. In between working on paintings, I use prints to bring together formal systems and overlapping motifs to create new imagery and elaborate on ideas."


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleThe Wayward Thinker (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Screenprint on paper
Brief description
Screenprint by Trenton Doyle Hancock, entitled 'The Wayward Thinker', 2007.
Physical description
Screenprint.
Dimensions
  • Height: 43.2cm
  • Width: 32cm
Marks and inscriptions
14/100 THE WAYWARD THINKER TRENTON DOYLE HANCOCK 2007 (all in pencil)
Summary
Trenton Doyle Hancock (born Texas, 1974) is an emerging artist with a rapidly growing international reputation. His work is now represented in major American museum collections, including the Brooklyn Museum, MoMA (NY), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney. His work is largely figurative and narrative, exploring a personal mythology which draws heavily on biblical influences that have their origins in his childhood in a Christian household in Texas. In a series of paintings, The Wayward Thinker, he tells the story of St Sesom (Moses backwards) and the Cult of Colours. 'Behold Sesom, I am painter and these are colours' begins the visual awakening of St Sesom. This print is related to that series, and shows a variety of hands, drawn in different styles. The hand at the centre holds three eggs - labeled Y, G and B, for Yellow, Green and Blue. A parable of creation (and of the artist's own visual awakening), it also explores the gestural expressiveness of hands as indicators of character, action and artistic influences, Hancock has said "I draw a lot of hands, simply for the fact that I can....I always thought it was a challenge to see if I could emote just by drawing them." Though drawn in different styles, each of the hands has the energy and character that is typically found in cartoons and caricatures. They are clearly kin to the grotesque disembodied hands, eyes and hobnail-booted feet of Philip Guston's late work. The eccentric typography which frames the hands clearly mirrors the 'waywardness' of the title.

Though Hancock is first and foremost a painter, he works regularly with print for what it can bring to the development of his iconography; he has said "...prints are motors to get to the next work. In between working on paintings, I use prints to bring together formal systems and overlapping motifs to create new imagery and elaborate on ideas."
Collection
Accession number
E.1276-2011

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Record createdDecember 5, 2011
Record URL
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