Henry Taylor: B Side
Oct 4, 2023–Jan 28, 2024
Resting
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Within Taylor's broad range of subjects are works that delve into political and social allegory and current events. In some, he addresses police brutality in ways that can be terrifyingly direct but also tender. Several paintings memorialize young men murdered by the police and reference the US penal system through images of prison walls, guard towers, and citizens with their hands up. In others, he packs images and text into surreal compositions whose elusive meanings comingle reportage, personal memory, and common outrage. Together, these works extend a long tradition of socially charged history paintings. As with Francisco Goya's The Third of May 1808 (1814), which Taylor cites as a precedent, the emotional message is one of horror and grief.
Henry Taylor, Resting, 2011
Henry Taylor, Resting, 2011. Acrylic and collage on canvas, 60 × 77 3/4 in. (152.5 × 197.5 cm). Collection of Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg. © Henry Taylor. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photograph by Joshua White
In Resting, Taylor depicts his niece and nephew sitting on a couch in their home with a reclining figure behind them. In the background, he portrays a tractor trailer and a group of uniformed men lining up in front of a penitentiary wall stenciled with the words “Warning Shots Not Required.” Among the materials collaged on the coffee table in the painting’s foreground are Canteen Correctional Service forms that family members fill out to authorize items prisoners can purchase at the commissary. The inclusion of these elements alludes to the personal interaction many Black families have with “the system,” lending a bitter irony to the work’s title.