graphite and charcoal on paper, 84 x 96 inches
: : Artist Statement : :
Hugo Crosthwaite's, New York, Victory Leading, is a parody of Delacroix's,
Liberty Leading the People, meant to celebrate July 28, 1830 when the people
rose up and dethroned the Bourbon king. The Delacroix painting is filled with
rhetoric - the outstretched figure of Liberty, the bold attitudes of the people
following her, contrasted with the lifeless figures of the dead heaped in the
foreground, the heroic poses of the people fighting for liberty. The young,
ignorant soldier is stepping over people of other races.
While New York, Victory Leading is constructed with the same triangular
composition and imagery as Delacroix's masterpiece, Crosthwaite's drawing
is not a celebratory artwork. Rather, it is an accusation on the intent of war
propaganda and why the act of war is being mass marketed to contemporary
society. In Crosthwaite's work, the background is anchored in rows and rows of
the blown out windows of the collapsing World Trade Center. The bare breast of
Liberty is ripped open, commenting on how she is violated by the ineffectiveness
of war. Her likeness, akin to the image of World War II pin-up girls, is overly
sexualized, lending a sense of comedic perversion to her image. She is flanked
by a young boy, the face of the soldier, with his rocket erection where he finds
his power. This overall baroque composition, with its imagery compressing the
space and its chaotic action, drives home the message of Crosthwaite's political
satire.
: : Exhibition History : :
: : Press : :