Description:

Hunt Slonem (American/Louisiana, b. 1951), "Point of No Return", 1995, oil on canvas, signed, titled and dated en verso, 72 in. x 84 in., framed. Note: As evident in the work offered here, Hunt Slonem exists in a decorative and colorful environment of birds and art. He not only has cared for dozens of birds throughout his life, but he intensely identifies with them, as his repetitive use of the theme in his paintings would imply. A symbol of freedom, the bird represents the spiritual wish to be something more. In the language of Slonem mysticism, they are unusual beings able to fly beyond the ordinary world into a higher, purer and more mysterious one. The artist has said, “My birds are not only birds…They also represent souls, though I wouldn’t go so far as to say whose.” The luminous and often chaotic atmosphere surrounding the birds suggests that he envisions them within a self-contained paradise of sorts, both highlighted and obscured by the overlapping grid of cross-hatching for which the artist is known. As explained by Donald Kuspit, “Slonem’s birds are transformational objects facilitating his creative growth, indeed, the symbol as well as major subject of his astonishing creativity.” Ref.: Kuspit, Donald B. Hunt Slonem – An Art Rich and Strange. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2002. Nahas, Dominique. The Worlds of Hunt Slonem. New York: The Vendome Press, 2011.

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November 18, 2017 10:00 AM CST
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