Gary Hume
44a Charlotte Road
London
EC2A 3PD
(+44) 020 7684 8888
mail [at] countereditions.com
www.countereditions.com/vicious
Gary Hume combines a passion for painting and a mastery of colour with a hard, cool touch. Starting with found images of familiar subjects – Kate Moss, a blackbird, some flowers – Hume transforms them into bold, semi-figurative abstractions. Though striking and easily seductive, Hume’s work retains an uneasy tension, with his decorative vision offset by the desire to show an awkward, edgy kind of beauty.
Inspired by the Lou Reed song Vicious Hume was especially intrigued by the opening lyric “you hit me with a flower”. For the painting of the same name he overlaid a dark silhouette – derived from an athletic statue of Mussolini – on a background of vibrant flowers, creating an attractive and decorative image out of the idea of violent beauty.
Founded in 2000 Counter Editions commissions and produces prints and multiples by leading contemporary artists including Rebecca Warren, Peter Doig, Roni Horn, Tracey Emin, Chris Ofili and Rachel Whiteread.
Image courtesy of Counter Editions and the artist.
Image above:
Vicious, 2010, 89 x 75 cm
12 colour screen-print on 410 gsm Somerset Tub sized paper
Produced by Coriander Studios, London
