Friday February 28, 2025
Henry Taylor (American, 1958)
Darker The Better…,2013
Plastic bottles, black spray paint, black acrylic, and nails on wood panel, 243.8 x 243.8 x 35.6 cm / 96 x 96 x 14 in
“Throughout his career, Taylor has remained committed to uncovering stories—about his family, about black people, about power and despair. “My painting is about…trying to be about some love shit, you know what I mean?” the artist said. “I had a cousin I called Aunt Peggy, and she came to me in a dream. ‘Henry, just tell the truth!’ That’s all she said! And I’ll never forget it. I’m still digging. I just want to be honest and make something beautiful that I can go back and look at and say: ‘I’m proud of that.’” via Artsy
“Born in 1958 in Ventura, California, the youngest of eight children, Taylor’s initial exposure to the medium of painting came from his father, who was a commercial painter employed by the U.S. Government at a naval air station. When he was at school, Taylor had an avid interest in the art historical movements spanning the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries. Taylor later attended Oxnard College, where he studied Journalism, Anthropology, and Set Design, and Taylor’s formal training came in the 1990s when he studied at The California Institute of the Arts; at the same time as studying he also worked as a psychiatric technician at Camarillo State Mental Hospital.” from Hauser & Wirth