Teun hocks biography of donald
P.P.O.W is proud to present Teun Hocks’ ninth solo exhibition with the gallery. Through these Recent Works, the Dutch artist expands his body of constructed imagery with fourteen photographic works that flex his mastery of process while narrating actions of futility and possibility. “Performing as the everyman in his photographs, Hocks invents scenes that are confrontations with failure, puzzlement and wonder. The staged scenes show the man being thwarted, trapped, and frustrated with seemingly no solution. The mundane becomes heroic, the trivial task becomes a Sisyphean ordeal. Through it all, Hocks, acting as a stand-in for the viewer, endures with a Buster Keaton-inspired performance.” (PPOW Gallery, 2009) Teun Hocks (b. 1947) is a Dutch artist who produces self portraits combining photography and painting. He paints his own backdrops then photographs himself within the scene. He prints the images in black and white applying a sepia tone. He then paints over them using transparent oil paint. He used this process for a body of work called Analogue Works. The depictions are autobiographical with references to his previous jobs, successes and failures. Having been a performer in his earlier years he uses this to create humorous but thought provoking images. In one image he is standing on the beach smoking a pipe looking at a cruise ship with smoke emanating from its funnel. Placed by his side is a suitcase. It appears that he has ‘missed the boat’. In another he creates a space theme of himself blindfolded walking on the moon wearing a party hat and streamers hanging off of him. This is a surreal image which shows that his fellow partygoers have left him to keep venturing forward without knowing where he is. We know he is lost but he continues as if the party is continuing in someone’s home. He uses shapes and mirroring of form, such as the pipe/funnel smoke, in another image which appears to be a reference to sleeping rough in a cardboard city. In the background he has painted a tower block city scape. In the foreground he has constructed a mirror image of those structures using cardboard boxes. He is found sleeping, in his suit, lengthways inside the cardboard boxes. The colouring of the final i Teun Hocks, born in Leiden ,lives and works in Breukelen, the Netherlands, and teaches at the Design Academy in Eindhoven. An artist who crosses genres, Hocks studied at the Academie St. Joost, in the town of Breda in his native Holland. Yet after art school, he made photo pieces and drawings , showed Super 8 films (beginning in 1977) and created performances, until he gave that up in 1985. Hocks photographs are cinematic in their process and mood. First, he constructs scenes in his studio and takes a black and white photograph. He then hand colors the photographs with transparent oil paint, taking precise care in the coloring in order to create specific emotions and atmosphere. The accumulation of these elements makes the environments seem like surreal portals. His films and drawings additionally reveal and delve into these worlds and also give greater insight to his storytelling and creative process. Performing as the everyman in his photographs, Hocks invents scenes that are confrontations with failure, puzzlement and wonder. The staged scenes show the man being thwarted, trapped, and frustrated with seemingly no solution. The mundane becomes heroic, the trivial task becomes a Sisyphean ordeal. Through it all, Hocks, acting as a stand-in for the viewer, endures with a Buster Keaton-inspired performance. In addition to his photographs and drawings, he also makes video. Teun Hocks has exhibited internationally for over twenty years. There are many publications of his work including the “Teun Hocks” monograph published through Aperture in 2006 with an essay by Janet Koplos and also “The Late Hour” a monograph published by De Geus with an essay by Donald Kuspit published in 1999. His work is included in museums and private collections and has been reproduced in major publications worldwide. His work, which has been exhibited in numerous international solo and group exhibitions, is represented by Torch Gallery , Amstedam , PPOW, New York.. Galerie Patricia Do Though Dutch artist Teun Hocks--performer, photographer, painter--is widely known and shown around the world, this will be his first English-language book. In it, Hocks plays his signature role, which Janet Koplos describes as "an innocent Everyman in an always strange and often funny world," in scenes that range from burlesque to tragicomic. His lonely Buster Keaton-like persona perseveres through odd and unforgiving environments, struggling to find stable ground in an unstable, even absurd, universe. Life's complications and challenges take the form of impossible Rube Goldbergian contraptions fraught with psychological implications. Each engaging image captures one moment of an implied narrative, triggering questions about how the protagonist ever got himself into such a fix and what in the world will happen next. Hocks begins by sketching out various one-man narratives, and then poses himself in a carefully plotted setup against his own painted backdrop. After photographing the scene, he paints in oil on top of the resulting oversize gelatin silver print. In addition to his painted photographs, "Teun Hocks" includes drawings, Polaroids and studio shots that illuminate the artist's creative process. The wit, elaborate technique and rich colors of Hocks's images combine to form an irrepressibly original oeuvre.
Hocks’ photographic paintings are tedious with layers of production that reveal the enduring patience of the artist while challenging the acute eye of his viewers. He begins each work by constructing a scene in his studio with the help of various props (i.e. ladder, books, and briefcase). Setting a timer on his camera, he jumps in to the scene. Then by hand Hocks paints the gelatin silver print with layers of transparent oil paint; creating a muted palette akin to Dutch still life painters Jan Weenix and Willem van Aelst. The final works operate as a bridge between the traditional process of photography and painting.
In these scenes Hocks positions himself amidst the psychological and philosophical struggles of everyday life; constructing narratives that contain the artist's tragic wit and comedic humor. Hocks' love of graphic novels helps to inspire the construction of his work. For example, in his Untitled (crossroad) we find Hocks confronted with a choice of paths and instead, his reaction is to dig himself into the proverbial hole.
Teun Hocks was born 1947 in Leiden, Holland and started taking photographs at fourteen years old. From 1966-70, he studied at Academies Sint Joost, in Breda, where he continued to live and began painting his photographs at twenty-six. In 1980, Hocks started to teach drawing at the Design Academy in Eindhoven, combined with teaching photography at the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam (from 1991 - 2000). In the early nineties Hocks moved to Breukelen and in 1991 he joined P.P.O.W. He has exhibited internationally for twenty years. There are many publications of his work including the Teun Hocks monograph published through Aperture in 2006