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Within the aftermath of World Warfare II—and the cataclysmal results of the atomic bomb—popular culture grew to become inundated by exaggerated tales of violence and anomie, as seen in a slew of best-selling crime and horror comics whose over-the-top yarns led to the beginning of the censorious Comics Code Authority. The legacy of grotesquerie within the comedian medium and its relation to modern artwork is a posh and circuitous one, however painter Tim Brawner admits that he’s influenced by EC Comics publications from the Fifties—equivalent to Tales from the Crypt and Mad journal—in addition to illustrator Basil Wolverton (1909–1978), whose grossly exaggerated mutant characters, created with pen-and-ink, had been unmatched of their visceral fabulousness.
Brawner expands upon this legacy along with his acrylic-on-canvas photographs right here, equivalent to The Escape III (all works 2023), which depicts the carefully cropped visage of a distressed man clutching the steering wheel of a automotive. A variety of Cimmerian blues are accented by small dots of white paint that make the floor shimmer, inflicting this noirish man on the run, whose oversize eyes reveal each terror and desperation, to seem uncomfortably vivid.
Brawner additionally cites underground comedian artist and former Heavy Metallic common Richard Corben (1940–2020)—recognized for his Grand Guignol fantasy and horror airbrush tales—as an affect, which jibes with Brawner’s Character Head 2: The topic’s ghoulish, rotting tooth, bugged-out eyes, and orange pallor give off Evil Useless II vibes. The artist’s fetishistic method to element is maybe greatest exemplified by Semiochem, one of many few items right here that strays from the painter’s monochromatic palette. The canvas depicts a macabre being with pointed ears feasting on an array of meals rendered with unearthly, hypersaturated colours. Within the foreground, a big insect flies amid glowing candlelight—the picture appears like a scene plucked out of a ’70s Hammer movie. Brawner’s abject, fantastical, and nightmarish visions, whereas grotesque, are absolutely no extra monstrous than actuality.
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