Tina Barney

The Son

1987

Barbara Astman (b. 1950) is a celebrated contemporary Canadian artist, best known for her innovative work using photography and its many utilitarian offshoots such as scanners and ph...

Attila Richard Lukacs (b. 1962) is one of Canada's most distinctive if not revolutionary Canadian figurative painters. Lukacs established his reputation in the 1980s by creating astonishing large-scale paintings that depicted skinheads, construction workers, and other masculine archetypes in elaborate and erotic scenes. The physical presence of the Lukacs' male subjects stands out as one of the artist's most distinctive aesthetic elements. With meticulous attention to form and proportions, Lukacs skillfully renders his young men with expressive brushwork and an intense, moody palette reminiscent of the old masters. Despite the monumental scale of his canvases, Lukacs begins his creative process with a much more intimate and modern day tool: the Polaroid. Because of its immediacy and simplicity it became an essential part of his process in the 80's and 90's. As a result the artist amassed a trove of over 1,200 Polaroids that depict lovers, friends, and anonymous models in a various poses that serve as a starting point for his paintings. In this grid of Polaroids, "Alex" is a young man posing nude on top of a tarp. The exceptional warmth and rich hues infuse this series of 12 Polaroids with a sensual and painterly quality, a characteristic that is undoubtably present throughout the artist's oeuvre. From 2009-2012 a large touring exhibition devoted to Lukacs' Polaroids was shown at several museums across Canada including Museum London and the Art Gallery of Alberta. Working with Michael Morris...

From IV&IF

from the series "Ill Form and Void Full" Ed. of 9