James Hough
"Gratuitous Gesture", 2005
Acrylic on canvas
Majorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection
Gift of Sampsel Preston Photography
2019.09

Gratuitous Gesture first appeared at Patricia Faure Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, in 2005. Like James Hough's other paintings in the TAF series they look like advertisements for an imaginary company with a shield-shaped logo. "At the time I loved glossy, full-page magazine ads, which probably inspired the paintings more than anything else," he recalls. Blurring the line between advertising and fine art, he suggests a link between the two kinds of media, drawing connections to abstract expressionist gesture-making. "The effect I was going for, in retrospect, was that sublime effect of a big Rothko," he says. "Spiritual, beautiful yet ominous, too." (DKS)