Richard Hull: Recent Paintings by Bruno David Gallery

RICHARD HULL RECENT PAINTINGS

bruno david gallery

RICHARD HULL RECENT PAINTINGS March 1 - 30, 2013 Bruno David Gallery 3721 Washington Boulevard Saint Louis, 63108 Missouri, U.S.A. info@brunodavidgallery.com www.brunodavidgallery.com Director: Bruno L. David This catalogue was published in conjunction with the exhibition Richard Hull: Recent Paintings Editor: Bruno L. David Catalogue Designer: Christy Kirk Designer Assistant: Claudia R. David Printed in USA All works courtesy of Bruno David Gallery and Richard Hull Photographs by Bruno David Gallery Cover image: Richard Hull The Drunken Boat (detail) 2012 Oil and wax ground on linen 60 x 48 inches (152.4 x 121.9 cm) First Edition Copyright ÂŠ 2013 Bruno David Gallery, Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written permission of Bruno David Gallery, Inc.

CONTENTS

Richard Hull: Neural Imagist BY SCOTT J. HUNTER Afterword BY BRUNO L. DAVID CHECKLIST AND IMAGES OF THE EXHIBITION BIOGRAPHY

Richard Hull: Neural Imagist By SCOTT J. HUNTER

As I consider each of Hull’s paintings, particularly The Composer, I am reminded of my days in the neuroanatomy laboratory, during my final year of training in pediatric neuropsychology. I spent my time watching an elderly, talented lecturing anatomist as he slowly and luxuriously separated the brain’s constituent lobes. Moving his thumbs along the fissures and gyri, he deconstructed the segments of neural tissue into their individual tracts. He described their embedded capacities and component networks as he lovingly placed each section on the laboratory table. In concert with this memory, I study the lobal structures in Hull’s paintings and find myself thinking about their consciousness. The emergent self is deeply contained within each neural tract, a series of intricate pathways and avenues. I consider the convolutions and contortions he so carefully placed on canvas, and I recall the life force in the neuronal networks, and their cellular structures that subserve emotional and behavioral experiences. For within the paintings’ folds and routes, depicted in bold colors, lies the character and dimensionality of the represented figures that fill the canvas. I recognize that because of those layers, connections and interactions created by the gestures left by Hull’s hand on the canvas, I experience a particular aspect of the personal, the voice of the artist and his communications and concerns. For discerning what is stated in those parts, as they come together into a formal whole, reveals a series of underlying emotions that share a newly created interpersonal space between the artist and the viewer. Many call Hull a “painter’s painter,” someone perhaps best appreciated by a thoughtful and learned viewer, another artist who holds the history of painting firmly in mind. But I argue that Hull is a master of the personal, reflected in a contemporary surrealism, where he is able to abstract both form and figure, and its intrinsic affect. As such, and as a Chicagoan, he is also an Imagist. For he has taken on the task of reworking multiple spaces, both conscious and unconscious, by considering and then reframing their historical connections; his strokes and gestures reflect relationships across time, as they are tucked in the folds and detours of our selves and our history.

When viewing Fire Sermon, I find myself again thinking of the brain’s convolutions, the structural interworking of thought and intelligence. A minister’s internal vocalizations appear to be captured and represented by the vivid colors of an fMRI scan. The painting reveals the deep fervor in the preacher’s soul, and expresses it with fury, channeled by an active, provoking brain. The fiery rotations and demarcations of thought, action, and feeling serve as representatives of a challenged, and challenging, self. For Hull’s paintings always fascinate with color and placement; the tones and tensions shoulder the underlying psychological. Each convolution situates as an attempt to evoke the sexual and cerebral. And each vibrant layer, each eddy of pigment, serves as a representation of the internal experience that accompanies arousal, captivation, pleasure, anxiety, sadness, and fear (e.g., Mother Night, a brilliant example of foreboding). For Hull’s paintings are topographical representations of what it means to be us, individuals with feelings, wants, desires, and satisfactions. Always pulsing, like an EEG of our thoughts and our designs, in tandem with the external world.

Scott J. Hunter is Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Behavioral Neuroscience, and Pediatrics, and Director of Neuropsychology at the University of Chicago. He is an active collector and curator of contemporary art, with an emphasis on Chicago artists.

AFTERWORD BY BRUNO L. DAVID

I am pleased to present Richard Hull first solo exhibition with the gallery. Richard Hull’s current paintings fill their canvases with large swathes of color; blocks of opaque hues are overlaid with sweeping brushstrokes clustered together that function like ripples on the water—but far less transient. Rings within a tree may more appropriate, as the description evokes the same feelings of growth that Hull’s painterly gestures achieve. The comparison of grooves on a record player describes some of the patterns, but neither the liveliness of the purposeful irregularities within Hull’s stroke widths nor the texture of thick paint upon the canvas. Although Hull’s paintings are not traditional portraits, each artwork has a distinct feeling of character. Hull applies a layer of melted beeswax to his canvas before painting, making the rich colors found in his work possible. Then, he paints shapes of hot and cold colors against each other, creating a skewed sense of perspective. This confusion of space, in addition to Hull’s use of repeating lines and simplified shapes, keeps the viewer from identifying a clear subject. The general weight of the masses of shapes often resembles a portrait silhouette, suggesting a living presence. Born in Oklahoma City, Hull received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1977, and his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1979. Hull became represented by Phyllis Kind Gallery in 1979 (Chicago and New York City) and, joined the company of well-known Imagists such as Roger Brown, Jim Nutt, Gladys Nilsson, and Ed Paschke. His paintings may be found in many private and public collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Milwaukee Art Museum; the Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City; and the San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas.¬ He has exhibited his work nationally and internationally. He lives and works in Chicago. Support for the creation of significant new works of art has been the core to the mission and program of the Bruno David Gallery since its founding in 2005. I would like to express my sincere thanks to Scott J. Hunter for his thoughtful essay. I am deeply grateful to Christy Kirk, who gave much time, talent, and expertise to the production of this catalogue. Invaluable gallery staff support for the exhibition was provided by Nicole Fry, Christy Kirk, Yoko Kiyoi, Martin Lang, Sophie Lipman, and Ashley Milow.

CHECKLIST & IMAGES OF THE EXHIBITION

The Drunken Boat, 2012 Oil and wax ground on linen 60 x 48 inches (152.4 x 121.9 cm)

Lauds, 2013 Oil and wax ground on linen 60 x 48 inches (152.4 x 121.9 cm)

Mother Night, 2013 Oil and wax ground on linen 60 x 48 inches (152.4 x 121.9 cm)

Aubade, 2012 Oil and wax ground on linen 48 x 36 inches (121.9 x 91.4 cm)

Mirror Perilous, 2012 Oil and wax ground on linen 60 x 48 inches (152.4 x 121.9 cm)

The Fire Sermon, 2012 Oil and wax ground on linen 48 x 36 inches (121.9 x 91.4 cm)

First Voice, 2011 Oil and wax ground on linen 48 x 36 inches (121.9 x 91.4 cm)

The Composer, 2010 Oil and wax ground on linen 48 x 36 inches (121.9 x 91.4 cm)

No. 14 , 2010 Ink on paper 24 x 18 inches (61 x 45.7 cm)

No. 1 , 2010 Ink on paper 24 x 18 inches (61 x 45.7 cm)

Richard Hull: Recent Paintings (Installation view)

RICHARD HULL Born: 1955, Oklahoma City, OK Lives and works in Chicago, IL

EDUCATION 1979 1977 1976

MFA, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL BFA, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME

SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2013 2012 2011 2010 2008 2006 2003 2001

Bruno David Gallery, “Recent Paintings,” St. Louis, MO (catalogue) Western Exhibitions, Chicago, IL Charlotte & Phillip Hanes Art Gallery, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem NC “Partial Vision”, Western Exhibitions, Chicago, IL Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago IL “37 Day Drawing” Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago IL Tarble Arts Center, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago IL Saginaw Valley State University, Saginaw Valley, MI Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL Rule Gallery, Denver, CO Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL Rule Gallery, Denver, CO Collaboration with Ken Vandermark, The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago IL

1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1993 1992 1991 1990 1989 1987 1986 1985 1984 1983 1982 1981 1980 1979

Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL U.U., Brooklyn, NY Bradley University, Peoria, IL Gallery A, Inc., Chicago, IL University Club, Chicago, IL Gallery A, Inc., Chicago, IL Phyllis Kind Gallery, Chicago, IL Phyllis Kind Gallery, Chicago, IL Butters Gallery, Portland, OR Rule Modern, Denver, CO Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA PrintWorks Gallery, Chicago, IL Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, NY Phyllis Kind Gallery, Chicago, IL Phyllis Kind Gallery, Chicago, IL Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans, LA Phyllis Kind Gallery, Chicago, IL Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, NY Phyllis Kind Gallery, Chicago, IL Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, NY Phyllis Kind Gallery, Chicago, IL Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, NY Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, NY Phyllis Kind Gallery, Chicago, IL Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, NY

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2012 2011 2010 2009

“Afterimage,” Depaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL “Sea Change,” Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago, IL “Someone Else’s Dream,” curated by John Mckinnon, The Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL “Push Pull,” The Riverside Art Center, Riverside, IL “Made in Chicago: The Koffler Collection,” The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC “After the Readymade,” Smart Museum, Chicago, IL “Chicago School: Imagism in Context,” Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, WI “The Arts Club of Chicago Members Show,” The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL “Spaces Within,” Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL “Touch and Go,” Sullivan Galleries, SAIC, Chicago, IL “Book Covers,” Printworks Gallery, Chicago, IL “Modern and Contemporary Works On Paper,” the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2004

“Submerged Artists,” The Dark Fair, Cologne, Germany “The Dark Fair,” the Swiss Institute, New York City, NY “2008 Preview,” Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL “Passionate Perspective,” Rockford Museum of Art, Rockford, IL “Wish you were here,” Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL “The ChalkBoard Chronicles,” New York City, NY “The Exquisite Snake,” Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Evanston, IL “The Arts Club of Chicago Members Show,” The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL “Abstract Imagism,” Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago, IL “The Pintura Series,” Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL “Bookmarks, 25th Anniversary Show,” Printworks, Chicago, IL “Members Exhibition,” The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL “Water World,” South Bend Regional Museum Of Art, South Bend, IN “Departures,” Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL “The Poetry Center Broadside Exhibit,” Judy Saslow Gallery, Chicago, IL “For The Birds,” the Clarke House Museum, Chicago, IL

2003 “Modern Shadows,” The Painting Center, New York, NY 2002 “Shifting,” Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL “Plotting,” Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL Sherry Leedy Gallery, Kansas City, MO 2001 “Members Exhibition,” Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL “Amused,” Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL “The Kitchen Sink,” Tom McCormick Gallery, Chicago, IL 2000 “Sextablos,” Hyde Park Art Center, Hyde Park, IL Redbud Gallery, Houston, TX “Self-Portraits,” Printworks Gallery, Chicago, IL 1998 Gallery A, Inc., Chicago, IL “Collaboration ‘98,” PrintWorks, Chicago, IL “Members Exhibition,” Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL “Drawing Invitational,” Parkland College Art Gallery, Champaign, IL 1997 “Testwalls: The Chalkboard Chronicles,” T’Zart Co., New York, NY “Landfall Press: Twenty-five years of Printmaking in Chicago 1935-1995,” Maryana Liegh Block Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL “Mental Visual Manual,” Foster Gallery, University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, WI “Dwelling,” Suburban Fine Arts Center, Highland Park, IL 1996-7 “Art in Chicago,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL “Art in the Family,” Peltz Gallery, Milwaukee, WI 1995 “Landfall Press 25 Year Anniversary,” Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL “Pulp Fiction,” Gallery A, Chicago, IL “Surface,” Judith Racht Gallery, Harbert, MI “Phyllis Kind Gallery Revisited,” The Foster Gallery, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, WI “Small,” Butters Gallery, Portland, OR 1994 “Small Details: Intimate Images through Artists’ Eyes,” Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences, Peoria, IL “Annual Exhibition of Artist Members,” The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL 1993 “Divided Spaces: Richard Hull, Miyoko Ito, David Richards,” Phyllis Kind Gallery, Chicago, IL “…A Loose Form of Narrative….”, Gallery A, Chicago, IL

“10th Anniversary of Artists in Residence,” The University of Tennessee, Ewing Gallery of Art and Architecture, Knoxville, TN “Annual Exhibition of Artist Members,” The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL “My Father’s House Has Many Mansions,” Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, NY “Ars Nova Judges Show,” Northern Illinois University Art Museum, DeKalb, IL 1992 “Annual Exhibition of Artist Members,” The Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL “Images from the 1980’s,” Samual P. Harnes Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL 1991 “Summer Group Show,” World Tattoo Gallery, Chicago, IL “Art on Paper,” Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC “Portraits of a Kind,” Phyllis Kind Gallery, Chicago, IL 1990 “79th Annual Exhibition/Small Bite out of the Big Apple,” Maier Museum of Art, Randolph-Macon Women’s College, Lynchburg, VA “Regarding Art: Artworks About Art,” Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, WI “70th Annual Artist Members Exhibition,” The Arts Club Chicago, Chicago, IL “Chicago Painters in Print: Brown, Paschke, Hull, Lostutter, Pasin-Sloan, Bamson, Wirsum,” Landfall Press, Chicago, IL 1989 “American Art Since World War II: Recent Acquisitions in the Department of Prints and Drawings,” The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL “Recent Acquisitions/1988,” Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI 1988 “Chicago Now!,” The South Bend Art Center, South Bend, IN 1987 “Richard Hull/ Michael Nakoneczny,” The Davidson Gallery, Seattle, WA “Chicago Style: Five Leading Artists,” Elliot Smith Gallery, St. Louis, MO 1986-7 “The Contemporary Arts Center Biennial,” The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH, and Travelling Exhibition; The Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH; Herron Gallery of Art, Indianapolis, IN; Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI 1986 “Showehegan Alumni Exhibition,” Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, NY 1985 “The Eighty-first Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity,” The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL 1984 “Ten Years of Collecting at the MCA,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL “The Eightieth Exhibition by Artist of Chicago and Vicinity,” The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL “Chicago Cross Section,” Trisolini Gallery, Ohio University at Athens, Athens, OH 1984 “Bright Lights, Big City,” Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, NY (Curated by John Yau) “Sculpture and Painting,” Hill Gallery, Birmingham, MI

“Midwest Invitational,” Clark Arts Center, Rockford College, Rockford, IL “Chicago: Emerging Visions,” The Paine Art Center and Arboretum, Oshkosh, WI 1983-84 “Eleven Chicago Artists,” Educational Outreach Program, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; and traveling to Chicago area schools 1983 “Chicago Scene,” Mandeville Art Gallery, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA “Habitats,” Klein Gallery, Chicago, IL; and traveling to Wright Museum of Art, Beloit College, WI “The Painterly Print,” Douglas Drake Gallery, Kansas City, KS 1982-83 “Dialect=Dialect: A Group Show of Artists with Complex” “Individual Vocabularies,” Phyllis Kind Galleries, New York, NY and Chicago, IL 1982 “Painting and Sculpture Today,” Indianapolis, IN Selections from the Denis Adrian Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL 1981-83 “Prints and Multiples, Seventy-ninth Exhibition of Artists of Chicago and Vicinity,” The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL and traveling to The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Portland Art Museum, OR 1980 “New Visions,” The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield CT 1980 “Seventy-ninth Exhibition of Artists of Chicago and Vicinity,” The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (William H. Bartels Prize) Chicago / Chicago, Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, OH 1978 “4/4 Show,” West Hubbard Gallery, Chicago, IL 1975-77 “Thirty Miles of Art,” Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO 1975 “First Time Out Together,” Cromwell Gallery, Kansas City, MO

SPECIAL PROJECTS 2012 Ken Vandermark and Richard Hull, “ Re:Compose” Performance, Depaul Art Museum, Chicago IL 2011 BOMB Magazine. “Jim Nutt & Gladys Nilsson” (interview). Bomb 114/Winter 2011 2007 Curator, ”STRUCK” New Paintings by New Painters, Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago IL Visuals, T.S. Elliots “The Wasteland,” The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL Cover, “The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist” 2006-05 Video Visuals, “The Pintura Series,” Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter” a Collaboration with Ken Vandermark-music 2005 Visuals, “the Beckett Project” a collaboration with Dan Grzeca, Japp Blonk ,Lotta, and Ken Vandermark, The Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago IL 2001 Performance, “Shadow Music” a collaboration with Ken Vandermark, The Arts club of Chicago, Chicago IL

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS American Medical Association, Chicago, IL The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL Arthur Anderson Co., Chicago, IL Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY Chemical Bank, New York, NY The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI First National Bank, Chicago, IL Samuel P. Harnes Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL Madison Art Center, WI Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority, McCormick Center South Hall, Chicago, IL Milwaukee Art Center, WI Morningstar Inc., Chicago, IL Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX Nelson-Atkins Museum Kansas City, MO Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, IL Northwestern University, Chicago, IL Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY Smart Museum, Chicago, IL San Antonio Museum of Art, TX The Smithsonian Washington D.C. Weatherspoon Art Collection, Greensboro, NC

ARTISTS Margaret Adams Laura Beard Martin Brief Lisa K. Blatt Bunny Burson Carmon Colangelo Alex Couwenberg Jill Downen Yvette Drury Dubinsky Beverly Fishman Damon Freed

William Griffin Joan Hall Ann Hamilton Kim Humphries Kelley Johnson Howard Jones (Estate) Chris Kahler Bill Kohn (Estate) Leslie Laskey Peter Marcus Genell Miller Patricia Olynyk

Robert Pettus Gary Passanise Judy Pfaff Daniel Raedeke Charles P. Reay Chris Rubin de la Borbolla Frank Schwaiger Charles Schwall Christina Shmigel Thomas Sleet Buzz Spector Cindy Tower Mario Trejo Ken Worley

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