SKUM: Just Beneath the Skin, 2018
Acrylic, graphite, plastic tops, and paper collage on canvas
60 x 60 x 4 in.
152.4 x 152.4 x 10.2 cm
152.4 x 152.4 x 10.2 cm
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'SKUM: Just Beneath the Skin,' 2018, is part of Hancock’s ongoing body of work that imagines a meeting between his alter-ego Torpedo Boy, a black superhero, and one of the...
"SKUM: Just Beneath the Skin," 2018, is part of Hancock’s ongoing body of work that imagines a meeting between his alter-ego Torpedo Boy, a black superhero, and one of the buffoonish Klansmen who populated Philip Guston’s paintings.
In this work, the Klansman hands Torpedo Boy a decapitated head, a searing gesture that recalls Titian’s depictions of Salome with the severed head of Saint John the Baptist. Many historians have seen the Baptist’s head as a self-portrait by the Renaissance artist, which created a subgenre—the decapitated self-portrait—later notably visited by Caravaggio, and now by Hancock in the guise of Torpedo Boy. Here, Torpedo Boy sees himself given back to himself, a moment of disturbing self-reflection.
In this work, the Klansman hands Torpedo Boy a decapitated head, a searing gesture that recalls Titian’s depictions of Salome with the severed head of Saint John the Baptist. Many historians have seen the Baptist’s head as a self-portrait by the Renaissance artist, which created a subgenre—the decapitated self-portrait—later notably visited by Caravaggio, and now by Hancock in the guise of Torpedo Boy. Here, Torpedo Boy sees himself given back to himself, a moment of disturbing self-reflection.