Press Release

The Ironic Icon

William Anthony

The Ironic Icon. A retrospective of the works of William Anthony.
Stalke Gallery is proud to present the first retrospective exhibition of the American artist William Anthony.

Since the mid-1960s, William Anthony's bizarre line drawings have achieved cult status among prominent figures such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein (according to Warhol, Anthony's illustration of the Bible was the only one Warhol could understand). And now others understand them too. His satirical depictions of human folly, war, mythology from the Wild West, and humorous "copies" of modernist masterpieces and visual culture materials — both mainstream and excessive — carry an unmistakable, quirky charm. The iconography makes it clear that this is pop. But it is also sub. Pop art's subconscious. A machine that distorts and rearranges images. Anthony's icons are not spiritual guides. Instead, they lead to an existential wilderness where laughter seems to be the final salvation, the last divine message after God has left the planet.

People claim that Pollock couldn't paint, while undoubtedly admitting that Anthony can't draw. Wrong. The people in his works are completely out of proportion and represent a formal exploration of drawing's boundaries, formulated as a deliberate attempt to escape conventions and rules. But at a high level, this is also the inherent point. Even though people resemble what they are, Anthony's lines are comical because humanity itself is comical.

Jes Brinch (Project Room)

Time to Change. New paintings by Jes Brinch.

The exhibition in the project room features a series of new paintings by Danish artist Jes Brinch, who is currently living and working in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Jes Brinch's paintings take an existential starting point, questioning the life values we often take for granted. The theme is "time for change," focusing on the relationship between men and women. These are works with a feminist and humorous tone that, in addition to prompting reflection on gender relations, convey some of the artist's experiences in Vietnam.

William Anthony: The Ironic Icon 

Stalke Gallery is proud to present the first retrospective exhibition of the American artist William Anthony, titled The Ironic Icon. A Retrospective of the Works of William Anthony.

Since the mid-1960s, William Anthony's bizarre art has achieved cult status among prominent figures such as Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol.

Anthony's works feature satirical depictions of human foolishness, war, mythology of the Wild West, and humorous "copies" of modernist masterpieces, as well as materials from the mainstream and exaggerated visual culture. The iconography makes it clear that this is pop, but it is also sub — the subconscious of pop art. A form that remixes the linear forces of the time and thus appears even sharper.

Anthony’s icons are far from spiritual guides. They lead into an existential wilderness, where laughter seems to be the only salvation—or perhaps the last alternative after God has left the planet.

People who claim that Pollock couldn't paint will undoubtedly insist that Anthony cannot draw. But even though Anthony’s people don’t look like us, they somehow resemble us far too much. The substantive point may be that Anthony’s line is comical because humanity itself is comical.

Kunstmagazinet

William Anthony

Jes Brinch.