Michael Tole

Hannah Belle Leading Her Forces at the Battle of Trebbia

2024

Michael Tole is a figurative painter currently living in Tempe, AZ with his wife and daughters. A Texas native, most of his 20 year long career was spent...

The Concert appropriates and marries two disparate art historical references, Titian’s, The Flaying of Marsyas, and Barbara Kruger’s, You Construct Intricate Rituals Which Allow You to Touch the Skin of Other Men. This piece seeks to probe the source and nature of our discomfort with the nude male body. In our culture, the male body is rarely displayed as an object of beauty. When it is, it is automatically described as “homo-erotic,” a term that implies that it appeals only to a niche audience, and denies its relevance or potential appeal to society as a whole. To avoid our discomfort, male nudity...

Michael Tole says of his work… This work draws a connection between the didactic moralizing tendencies of Neo Classicism (represented in the style of the painting) and Modernism (represented in the architectural setting). Though modern art eschews the naturalistic imagery used by Neo Classicists, both movements pursued a self-important, austere, self-consciously masculine aesthetic that they saw as synonymous with virtue. Set in the MoMA courtyard, a passel of men lounge about, regarding a golden statue which looks terribly out of place in this modernist vitrine. The uncomfortable architectural setting, prisonlike and cold, provides a foil for the odalisque-like young men sprawled on hard stone benches and paying homage to the central idol. In my current work, The Revisionist Histories, I am writing letters to art history, literature, and mythology in an attempt to reflect the social changes that have reshaped our society over the past century.  As part of this agenda, I explore the evolution of gender norms, power dynamics, and representation within Western visual culture and what this implies for the negotiation between pleasure, justice, and our culturally specific discourse on beauty.    The seed for The Revisionist Histories was sewn when I caught a glimpse of my preteen daughters watching music videos on their iPad as I chopped veggies for dinner.  Out of the corner of my eye I caught glimpses of music videos featuring Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, and Doja Cat gyrating across the tiny screen.  A better parent might have snatched the iPad away, but I was overcome with hallucinatory visions of this pop diva...

A Death of Sardanapalus is a revisionist history in which I reimagine the fall of the last Assyrian king, famously portrayed by Delacroix. In my reimagining, far from being passive victims, Sardanapalus’s concubines are about to perform a coup de gras, without him suspecting a thing. Full title is 'A Coalition of Willing Goddesses Topples Mars, Commonly Known as A Death of Sardanapalus' In my current work, The Revisionist Histories, I am writing letters to art history, literature, and mythology in an attempt to redress past wrongs, re-draw archetypes, and reflect the social changes that have reshaped our society over the past century. As part of this agenda, I explore the evolution of gender norms, power dynamics, and representation within Western visual culture and what this implies for the negotiation between pleasure, justice, and our culturally specific discourse on beauty. Oddly enough, this work is inspired in part by my pre-teen daughters’ growing musical interests which exposed me for the first time to the world of music videos (I had a sheltered childhood as my parents couldn’t afford cable TV). My daughters are primarily interested in pop divas...

Land Battle - Antonio Savisio Italia 2006 - Oil on canvas cm. 40x80 Maestro Antonio Savisio drew inspiration from the masterpieces of the great Neapolitan Maestro Salvator Rosa who...

Jacopo Scassellati was born in Sassari (Sardinia) in 1989 where he still resides today. His family is originally from Umbria. Very early on, he displayed a strong predisposition for ...

Land Battle - Antonio Savisio Italia 2006 - Oil on canvas diam. cm. 30 Gold leaf gilded and laquered wooden frame cm. 47x47 Maestro Antonio Savisio drew inspiration from the master...

Antique battle scene with horsemen in front of landscape scenery. Oil on canvas. Framed in a black wooden frame with a gold patinated moulding. The canvas with strong craquelure. Siz...