Face

Painting

-

HCC Permanent Art Collection

Name/Title

Face

Entry/Object ID

2021.28.5

Description

Thomas Kettner painting with chunky brush strokes of thick wet-on-wet paint. The top of the canvas appears to hold more texture than the bottom half of the canvas. The top central area of the canvas features heavy strokes of blue, blending into many other colors that create more earthy tones around the blue. Longer brushstrokes appear round the right and left hand borders of the canvas that bring us down to the bottom of the canvas. The texture at the bottom of the canvas shows dabbing brushstrokes that create small peaks and valleys of paint.

Collection

HCC Permanent Art Collection

Made/Created

Artist Information

Artist

Thomas Kettner Jr.

Role

Artist

Date made

2012 - 2016

Time Period

21st Century

Location

Category

Offsite

Category

Temporary

Interpretative Labels

Label Type

Didactic

Label

Thomas Kettner Jr. (b. 1948 – d. 2020) Face, c.2012-2016 oil painting 40 x 28 in. 2021.28.5 Thomas Kettner’s work is characterized by animated, bold brushstrokes of oil paint applied liberally to his surface of choice. The paint becomes the subject of the painting as Kettner works with and against it, adding both a literal and metaphorical weight to his canvases. The tension created through expressive, dense brushstrokes allows for objects and people to appear–though sometimes they are quite abstract. Kettner wrote: “If figures and forms give structure to my paintings, it is the paint, oozing across the surface, that gives them life. A balance struck between representation and abstraction, blended with sensuous love of the medium, is my resolution.” This work of art is a part of the HCC Permanent Art Collection. The HCC Art Galleries, through their Campus Loan Outreach Program, seek to share original art by collecting a diversity of works for the education and enjoyment of the HCC Community.