Encaustic Wax Layered 1996 Floating Jacket by Tony Hernandez

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Tony Hernandez
Encaustic Wax Layered 1996 Floating Jacket by Tony Hernandez
1996

About the Item

tony hernandez was born in Atlanta in 1964 and has been painting professionally since 1988. while he is a southern artist, his works are far from the region. his subject matter delves into the lives of children of the holocaust, as well as those who struggled through the great depression, especially in the ghettos of the bronx where his grandparents lived. he is haunted by photographs of these children, often being consumed by the images until he puts pigment to canvas. hernandez conveys the worlds that children create for themselves when they feel powerless by the fallacies of adults. with effervescence and symbolism, his paintings of preadolescent children wrestle with two themes: powerlessness and imagination. this tango creates a realm where the "mind of wonder" is tangible. “requiem of mind and wonder” reaches for both the palpable and abstract. hernandez has investigated these leitmotifs over the last several decades, working exclusively on handmade birch wood panels using the technically-demanding process of encaustic painting. while his works are simple visually, their psychological tone is complex. In these void landscapes, he portrays children unabridged, drawing on emotional gravity. With nothing to distract from the subject, the viewer is pulled into this land of childlike curiosity and fear. even with evident melancholy throughout the body of work, such as the boy in the dunce hat, reaching for his shadow, there is hope within his shadowed, crowned self. hernandez often uses doves to imply this sense of hope, as they represent a bridge from the despondent into the ethereal. with the painting of the doves sitting before a lounging girl, they seem guardian-like, protecting her from the trials that presumably surround her. in another painting, a girl adorns a deep red dunce cap while two doves perch on her forearms, depicting that thin divide between reality and imagination. through his adroit portrayal of historical calamities and symbolism, hernandez has been contrasted with a litany of acclaimed artists, such as christian boltanski and anselm kiefer. even so, hernandez’s dexterity draws from his own instinct, which he developed after attending the art institute of atlanta as a high school student. after devoting himself to painting full-time in 1988, he distinguished his style further as he recognized that he paints for the primarily emotional connection. this disassociation from trends has allowed him to look inward before he looks outward, creating works that are overwhelming and frank. the art critic jerry cullum has said, "it’s rare to find an artist whose work functions so totally on a level that gives the subjective sensation of intellectual satisfaction without providing anything like an obvious conceptual agenda. his approach to figuration delivers a definable psychological impact, and that he does this with rather more complexity than most painters." tony hernandez exhibits internationally and his works are in numerous public collections throughout the u.s., notably the fine arts museums of san francisco. in 2018, he will be relocating his atlanta home and studio to charlotte, nc. PRESS RELEASE Tony Hernandez is haunted by photographs of children who perished in the Holocaust. He is also preoccupied with images of boys and girls who struggled through the Great Depression, especially in the ghettos of the Bronx where his grandparents lived. "Unlike adults, children are powerless," he says. "They're usually the ones to suffer the most from man's supreme ability to be ignorant throughout history." Imbued with a rich symbolism of his own creation, Hernandez's paintings of preadolescent boys and girls grapple with this powerlessness, as well as the "mind of wonder" that sustains children even in the darkest hours. Over the past several decades, Hernandez has single-mindedly explored these themes, working exclusively on handmade birch wood panels using the technically-demanding process of encaustic painting. With a deceptively simple visual vocabulary, depicting children adrift in a featureless landscape, he creates vignettes of a subtle psychological power. His poignant compositions are distilled down to their emotional essence, granting viewers entry into a world of transcendence While there is a large measure of despair, abandonment and forlorn tenderness in these images, they are counterbalanced by emblems of hope: lonesome doves, with their dual connotations of solitude and mating, are standard emblems of impending peace. The doves sit at the children’s feet, attentive and guardian-like, or perch playfully on their heads and fingertips. In one recent painting, a boy wears a dunce cap, the symbol of incompetence, yet his shadows show him wearing a crown. Another new painting depicts a girl playing a violin to a dunce-capped dove. The earnestness of her serenade suggests the ability of children to see past the glib judgments of grownups. In his sensitivity to his subject matter, Hernandez has drawn comparisons to Christian Boltanski, while his deft communication of historical travesties through personal symbolism has been compared to the paintings of Anselm Kiefer. But above all Hernandez remains true to his own instincts, which he has developed since attending the Art Institute of Atlanta as a high school student and refined since devoting himself to painting full-time in 1988. "I paint for emotional connection," he explains. "I am not concerned with fads, what is hot in the art world, and I really have not paid much attention to it in almost 20 years." That independence frees Hernandez to make images that are fully autonomous. As the art critic Jerry Cullum explains, "it’s rare to find an artist whose work functions so totally on a level that gives the subjective sensation of intellectual satisfaction without providing anything like an obvious conceptual agenda. His approach to figuration delivers a definable psychological impact, and that he does this with rather more complexity than most painters." Tony Hernandez exhibits internationally and his works are in numerous public collections throughout the U.S., notably the Fine Arts Museums Of San Francisco.

Creator:
Tony Hernandez
Creation Year:
1996
Dimensions:
Height: 48 in (121.92 cm)Width: 48 in (121.92 cm)Depth: 2 in (5.08 cm)
Medium:
Encaustic
Movement & Style:
Abstract
Period:
1990-1999
Condition:
very small less than dime size knick on the corner ( see pics).
Gallery Location:
Palm Beach, FL
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU138126523252