Polymonochrome

James Hough
"Polymonochrome", 2005
Acrylic on canvas
Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection
Gift of the Las Vegas Art Museum, 2021; Gift of the artist, 2007.
2021.08.114

Polymonochrome 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 the soaked-in tones of color field painting. "The effect I was going for, in retrospect, was that sublime effect of big Rothko," he says. "Spiritual, beautiful yet ominous, too." (DKS)