John Berggruen Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by Stephen
Hannock. New Work will be on view from November 5-December 5, 2009. John
Berggruen Gallery will host a reception for the artist on Thursday, November 5 between
5:30 and 7:30 p.m. The opening reception will also include a signing of the artist's
recently published monograph from Hudson Hills Press; a 30 year survey of work
including the just completed painting, Northern City Renaissance, the culmination of a
six year project with the musician Sting.
New Work is a series of nocturnes that examine the unusual atmospheres that occur in the
Napa Valley, often observed by locals and visitors alike, but rarely recorded; a familiar
bucolic setting rendered brooding and dramatic as day turns to night, and night yields to
dawn. The centerpiece of the show, Recent Adventures with Art in the Napa Valley (Mass
MoCA #117), is a large (72 x 109 inches) view of the Napa Valley at dawn from an aerial
perspective. Also on view are several small works created in conjunction with Recent
Adventures which evoke the tradition of low-light studies by artists such as Whistler and
Remington, and relate thematically to Recent Adventures. Two of the smaller nocturnes
are from farther afield, inspired by the topography of the Chianti region. The title of the
central work hints at the artistic journey that Hannock went through in the creation of the
painting, as well as referencing the Western Massachusetts studio in which it was created.
Originally conceived of as a history of the Napa wine industry, the painting rapidly
evolved to reflect the ‘art adventures’ that unfolded during Hannock’s preliminary
research. The final painting, along with the smaller works, speaks not only to the history
of landscape painting in American and British art, with hints of Turner and Ryder along
with Whistler and Remington, but also to the process of artistic and personal discovery
that unfolds along with each of Hannock’s masterpieces.
As in much of Hannock’s previous work, layers of texts and images form the backbone of
Recent Adventures, shaping the composition and producing a final product that is,
literally and metaphorically, multi-layered. The hand-written texts evolve along with
Hannock’s preliminary work on the painting, and are laid in much like a preliminary
drawing. As Hannock works, the texts help to shape the final composition, even as they
are partially obscured by layers of paint. The final result encourages the viewer to look
closely, peering below the surface in an attempt, ultimately frustrated by the partial
nature of the texts, to read the written narrative. Hannock’s surfaces are a hallmark of the
artist’s work, machine polished layers of paste and resin, text and paint.
Although Hannock’s work naturally draws comparisons to the nineteenth-century
tradition of landscape painting in America, specifically the Hudson River School and the
so-called Luminists, he is an artist completely at home in the twenty-first century,
creating elaborate web features on his large-scale works and engaging with digital media.
The freedom with which Hannock works, progressing rhythmically from text to paint,
layering images and words, and constantly evolving his subject matter is a world away
from the comparatively more rigid working process of his artistic predecessors, yet
Hannock’s largest series to date, the Oxbow paintings, pays homage to past masters of
American art. The Oxbow: After Church, After Cole, Flooded (Flooded River for the
Matriarchs E. & A. Mongan), Green Light (2000) is one of two works by Hannock
currently hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, a signal honor for a
living artist.
In addition to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hannock’s work is included in numerous
significant public and private collections, such as the National Gallery of Art, Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston,
Texas, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, Williams College Museum of Art,
Williamstown, Massachusetts, Albany Institute of History of Art, Albany, New York, and
Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Born in Albany, Stephen Hannock
lives and works in New York and Williamstown, MA.