The Chadwicks

With videos, paintings, drawings, and prints, the notoriously elusive Chadwicks cast an ironic glance upon the history of art and of their aristocratic English lineage dating to the 17th century. The Chadwicks’ ancestors were sea captains, historians, and connoisseurs, resulting in a deep family interest in maritime art, including that of iconic 17th-century Dutch landscapists Jacob Hobbema, Jacob van Ruisdael, and Aert Van der Neer. The Chadwicks play on this interest in works like The Genetron (2008), a mixed-media reference to Ruisdael, and Marine Nocturne #1 (2007), a dark seascape recalling the mystical pictures of storied English artist J.M.W. Turner. Their work is not merely a tribute, however, and often has a tongue-in-cheek element, as in Untitled (Car Bomb) (2007), which appropriates the characteristic low horizon line of Dutch landscapes but depicts an exploding car bomb.