Items Similar to Having Found the Lowest Threshold (St. George Slaying the Dragon)
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 2
Adam MysockHaving Found the Lowest Threshold (St. George Slaying the Dragon)2013
2013
About the Item
After: Nicolas Poussin’s Massacre of the Innocents, from 1629
Framed: 8.50h x 9.50w in
In the summer of 2013, the murder of Trayvon Martin dominated weeks of news cycles. As if we needed more of such news, the city of New Orleans had its own slate of what I referred to as “murdered minors.” The whole phenomenon reminded me of the biblical Massacre of the Innocents, the story in which Herod orders the execution of all young males in Bethlehem to avoid the loss of his throne to a newborn king. I began questioning what justification could possibly defend these modern slayings, and it quickly dawned on me that it never seemed to take much for the killers to justify their actions. Sometimes it was a simple as the victim wearing the wrong kind of clothing.
Nicolas Poussin’s The Massacre of the Innocents has always been my favorite depiction of the aforementioned biblical tale, but much like the killing of youths that seemed to characterize that summer, it had never been a settled image for me. I decided to experiment with it, to see what changes I had to compel in order for the actions depicted to feel reasonable.
Having Found the Lowest Threshold (St. George Slaying the Dragon) was the result.
The women and children had to be from another world—they had to be aggressive—in order for the soldier’s actions to feel “okay.” Sadly, those two criteria could be met simple by giving them another skin color and a different vision than the one holding the weapon.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Adam Mysock was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1983 - the son of an elementary school English teacher and a lab technician who specializes in the manufacturing of pigments. On account of a steady stream of folk tales from his mother, his father's vividly dyed work clothes, and a solid Midwestern work ethic, he developed an interest in painting and drawing all things Americana from a very early age. Mysock earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting and Art History by 2004 from Tulane University. He then received an MFA from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
After his studies, he became the mural coordinator for the City of Cincinnati's MuralWorks mural program and worked as an adjunct drawing professor at Sinclair Community College in Dayton. In the summer of 2008, Mysock became a Professor of Practice at Tulane University where he currently teaches and maintains a studio. Mysock's work has been exhibited in Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana and is in private collections across the US, including those of Thomas Coleman and Michael Wilkinson. He was a 2009 jury winner in the annual No Dead Artists juried exhibition. On August 4th, 2012 he was awarded first prize “Best in Show” in the Ogden Museum’s Louisiana Contemporary Annual Juried Exhibition. Mysock exhibited at Pulse Miami Art Fair in December 2012 with Jonathan Ferrara Gallery and he was selected for the 2013 Edition of New American Paintings. Mysock was exhibited in a solo project booth at the VOLTA9 Art Fair in Basel, Switzerland where he was acquired by the SØR Rusche Collection. In 2015, Mysock’s work will be featured in a Baroque and Contemporary group exhibition from the SØR Rusche Collection, Oelde/Berlin at Kunsthalle Jesuitenkirche as well as in a solo exhibition entitled When Everything Was Wonderful Tomorrow at Galerie Andreas Binder in Munich, Germany.
I’m a revisionist history painter. Rather than rewrite the narrative of the past to justify an ideology, I repaint yesterday’s imagery in order to rationalize our present circumstances.
Mysock says of his work, “Telling stories is a part of human nature; it’s how we relate to one another. The stories we have in common help us create sincere connections to our neighbors and our surroundings. What’s more, storytelling – for better or worse – typically involves hyperbole. We tend to exaggerate; we tend to lie.
Generally, we believe we control our narrative embellishments. What gets exaggerated from one telling to another gets exaggerated to challenge our listeners. What gets repeated gets repeated because it resonates with them. What gets omitted gets left out because it’s lost its meaning. We actively use embellishment to keep our audiences engaged.
Given enough distance, however, sources and accuracy fade out and substitutions become the new norms. Quietly, time redefines what is truth and what is fiction.
As a painter, I’m preoccupied by the undeniable role that the image plays in creating this acceptance of the fictional. A painting has the authority to make the intangible concrete, and a series of them has the ability to authenticate a fabrication in our collective memory.
When I begin a piece, I typically start with preexisting images, artifacts from this collective remembrance. I look for images that shape my pictorial consciousness, that are hard to question because when I first saw them they were presented as the truth. They have to capture my imagination and they have to feel largely descriptive of a greater story. From them, I’m given my task – I have to “disrepair” them. I have to consolidate an earlier world of historical and cultural visual-fact with an evolving understanding of subtlety and gradation. I find that the discrepancies I discover between the absolute and the nuanced inspire me most.
The resultant work is largely about storytelling, the ownership and authorship of our culture’s visual narratives, and the parallels between those tales. It’s meant to challenge the truth of “source” and the source of truth. After all, as Franz Kafka once wrote, "It is hard to tell the truth, for although there 'is' one, it is alive and constantly changes its face."
statement
"In the summer of 2013, the murder of Trayvon Martin dominated weeks of news cycles. As if we needed more of such news, the city of New Orleans had its own slate of what I referred to as “murdered minors.” The whole phenomenon reminded me of the biblical Massacre of the Innocents, the story in which Herod orders the execution of all young males in Bethlehem to avoid the loss of his throne to a newborn king. I began questioning what justification could possibly defend these modern slayings, and it quickly dawned on me that it never seemed to take much for the killers to justify their actions. Sometimes it was a simple as the victim wearing the wrong kind of clothing.
Nicolas Poussin’s The Massacre of the Innocents has always been my favorite depiction of the aforementioned biblical tale, but much like the killing of youths that seemed to characterize that summer, it had never been a settled image for me. I decided to experiment with it, to see what changes I had to compel in order for the actions depicted to feel reasonable.
Having Found the Lowest Threshold (St. George Slaying the Dragon) was the result.
The women and children had to be from another world—they had to be aggressive—in order for the soldier’s actions to feel “okay.” Sadly, those two criteria could be met simple by giving them another skin color and a different vision than the one holding the weapon."
- Creator:Adam Mysock (1983, American)
- Creation Year:2013
- Dimensions:Height: 6 in (15.24 cm)Width: 7 in (17.78 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:New Orleans, LA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1052469112
Adam Mysock
Adam Mysock holds a BFA degree in Painting and Art History from Tulane University and an MFA from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. In collaboration with his studio practice, he has taught at the university level for more than 10 years, most recently as a Senior Professor of Practice at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana.
About the Seller
5.0
Gold Seller
Premium sellers maintaining a 4.3+ rating and 24-hour response times
Established in 1998
1stDibs seller since 2015
171 sales on 1stDibs
Typical response time: 6 hours
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Shipping from: New Orleans, LA
- Return Policy
Authenticity Guarantee
In the unlikely event there’s an issue with an item’s authenticity, contact us within 1 year for a full refund. DetailsMoney-Back Guarantee
If your item is not as described, is damaged in transit, or does not arrive, contact us within 7 days for a full refund. Details24-Hour Cancellation
You have a 24-hour grace period in which to reconsider your purchase, with no questions asked.Vetted Professional Sellers
Our world-class sellers must adhere to strict standards for service and quality, maintaining the integrity of our listings.Price-Match Guarantee
If you find that a seller listed the same item for a lower price elsewhere, we’ll match it.Trusted Global Delivery
Our best-in-class carrier network provides specialized shipping options worldwide, including custom delivery.More From This Seller
View AllPorch Guest
By Amanda Brown
Located in New Orleans, LA
Amanda Joy Brown is a visual artist and educator based in Nashville, TN. Brown earned her MFA in the painting program at the Savannah College of Art and Design. During her time there...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Paintings
Materials
Acrylic, Panel
Q7
By Aimée Farnet Siegel
Located in New Orleans, LA
Non-objective artist Aimée Farnet Siegel works with color and line through the medium of hand-painted and manipulated paper. Her works inhabit space outside the two-dimensional plan...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media
Materials
Paper, Acrylic, Wood Panel
Q5
By Aimée Farnet Siegel
Located in New Orleans, LA
Non-objective artist Aimée Farnet Siegel works with color and line through the medium of hand-painted and manipulated paper. Her works inhabit space outside the two-dimensional plan...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media
Materials
Paper, Acrylic, Wood Panel
Overseer
By Gina Phillips
Located in New Orleans, LA
Gina Phillips is a mixed media, narrative artist who grew up in Kentucky and has lived in New Orleans since 1995. The imagery, stories and characters of both regions influence her wo...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Paintings
Materials
Acrylic, Oil, Panel
$21,500
Alabama Goddamn
By Nora See
Located in New Orleans, LA
NORA SEE grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where, as a child, she taught herself to draw. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from the Corcoran College of Art and Design and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of New Orleans. She works and lives in New Orleans.
In her oil paintings, Nora See renders framed paintings on walls with which human figures interact. Through her classical painting style and the use of historical visual references, her pieces contrast the past with the present. By combining these temporal elements with the use of frames as containers, she explores themes of consumption, imprisonment, and liberation.
Nora’s work has been exhibited in a variety of venues and is also in the personal collection of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds.
STATEMENT
“Good artists borrow. Great artists steal.” A quote oft attributed to various sources that was never actually uttered by any of them. Though Mark Twain elaborated on the sentiment: “Ninety-nine parts of all things that proceed from the intellect are plagiarisms.” In the Framed Series, I use my 1% contribution to combine issues of consumption with my autobiography.
I paint copies of copies of paintings within paintings to reference the appropriation, commodification, and altered continuum of art. My paintings of paintings are based on photographs of originals to perpetuate the continual distillation of form, given the ease with which images are presently exchanged and modified. Further, by reducing historically significant paintings to framed objects...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Paintings
Materials
Oil, Acrylic, Panel
Foreseeing Nothing
By Adam Mysock
Located in New Orleans, LA
(after: Henry Fawcett; Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett by Ford Made Brown, 1872)
Framed: 8.50h x 10w in
On November 7th, 2016, it seemed as if everyone knew how the U.S. presidential election would conclude, particularly our major media outlets. On the morning of November 9th, 2016, it was clear that no one had known what they had been talking about.
We’d spent so much time living in a world defined by largely reliable focus groups, polls, and surveys that we’d become convinced that we could idly predict the future. Our news sources became complacent in their analysis of human behavior, and we followed along. It became the blind leading the blind.
But what truly struck me was that we seemed surprised to discover our inability to foresee the future, to discover that we aren’t omniscient.
Here—in the tradition of other paintings depicting the parable of the blind...
Category
2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings
Materials
Acrylic, Panel
You May Also Like
Goat
Located in Brooklyn, NY
TWELVE CHAIRS GALLERY
“Goat” (2012) by Zura is a dynamic acrylic painting on wooden panels, measuring 35 × 42 inches (88.9 × 106.7 cm). This early work exemplifies Zura's signature f...
Category
2010s Contemporary Animal Paintings
Materials
Wood, Acrylic, Wood Panel
$13,000
'Untitled Triptych' by John Wolfe, Acrylic on Panel Painting
Located in Oklahoma City, OK
This 36" x 108" acrylic on panel triptych was painted by Oklahoma artist, John Wolfe. This triptych presents an urban environment, employing bold geometric forms and a vivid color pa...
Category
2010s Contemporary Paintings
Materials
Acrylic, Panel
Luminous Blue/Silver Metallic Painting by Audra Weaser/ Silvery Seas
By Audra Weaser
Located in Greenwich, CT
Audra Weaser (b. 1967) is best known for her large-scale abstract paintings which represent the
changing effects of light in the natural world - from ripples on water to shafts glimp...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Landscape Paintings
Materials
Paint, Acrylic, Panel
Luminous Blue/Silver Metallic Painting by Audra Weaser/ Pearl Stream
By Audra Weaser
Located in Greenwich, CT
Audra Weaser (b. 1967) is best known for her large-scale abstract paintings which represent the
changing effects of light in the natural world - from ripples on water to shafts glimp...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Landscape Paintings
Materials
Paint, Acrylic, Panel
Luminous Blue/Silver Metallic Painting by Audra Weaser/ Bathing Horizon
By Audra Weaser
Located in Greenwich, CT
Audra Weaser (b. 1967) is best known for her large-scale abstract paintings which represent the
changing effects of light in the natural world - from ripples on water to shafts glimp...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Landscape Paintings
Materials
Paint, Acrylic, Panel
Klare Sicht / Clear View
Located in Wien, 9
Mikesch, who had lived in Berlin as a freelancer since 1966, was originally active as a painter and graphic artist. He worked for radio from 1979. He wrote prose texts for children a...
Category
1970s Contemporary Figurative Paintings
Materials
Acrylic, Panel
Recently Viewed
View AllMore Ways To Browse
The Mural Source
Black Southern Folk Art
Throne Painting
George Dragon
George And Dragon
Summer Dawn Painting
Folk Art Painting Thomas
Folk Art Soldier
M Andrea Paintings
Louisiana Folk Art
St George And The Dragon
Baroque Throne
Nicolas Poussin
Michael Wilkinson
Dragon Throne
George Andreas
George Booth
St Michael And The Dragon