BOLDTYPE ISSUE #58: Artwork By
Teun Hocks
The cover of this issue of Boldtype is a detail from a characteristically untitled work by Dutch artist Teun Hocks, taken from the 2006 monograph of his work published by Aperture. Despite the artist's international acclaim, this is the first English-language volume dedicated to his work. The book features 50 of Hocks' painted photographs, each the result of a meticulous process: after an initial sketch, he paints a background, photographs himself against it in black and white, often with an assortment of props and costumes, and then paints the resultant image with acrylic.
Hocks has accused the man in this 2000 piece of having a curiosity so extreme as to become abnormal — his need to understand the painting makes him literally enter it. Hocks never shies from implicating the figure of the viewer in his works; for instance, in another work, a man attempts to look through a window at a rainstorm, but is unable to see past his own morose reflection staring back at him. That Hocks is his own protagonist in these works makes each something of an admission of guilt, with resignation, glumness, and self-mockery all implicit.
Born in 1947 in Leiden, Holland, Hocks made Super 8 films and traveled the country as a performance artist in the '70s and early '80s. His projects since then include the cover of a Chills album, a stained-glass design for a South Holland church, and a number of short films — all direct reflections of the multimedia theatricality of his photographs. He has had numerous solo exhibitions worldwide, most recently in 2006 at P·P·O·W in New York. His work is currently on view in the group exhibition Mind at Play at the Art Institute of Chicago through September 7.
- Grace Labatt
Teun Hocks
Untitled, 2000
Oil on toned gelatin silver print
50 3/8 x 67 1/4 in./128 x 170.8 cm
Courtesy Aperture, New York
All Rights Reserved
