Richard Hull: Etchings and Monotypes

Richard Hull calls his recent works “stolen portraits.” In these portrait-like structures lobes, appendages and swirling masses suggestive of breasts, chins, hairdos, eyes and other body parts form the head and shoulders of a figure. The bulbous loops are accentuated by repetitive, concentric curves within the large masses. Each of these images expresses a distinct visual personality rather than a representation of a particular individual. This exhibition showcases the artist’s explorations of this theme in print media.

Since 2015, Richard Hull has made prints at Manneken Press, producing four etching editions and numerous monotypes. Hull's etchings "Tuesday" and "Wednesday”, from 2017, both depict a figure viewing itself in a mirror, the funky and undulating frame of which has become part of the figure itself. The images are densely drawn, textured with etched lines, cross hatching and dotted strokes, and tonally modulated with step-bitten aquatints.

In Hull’s stunning color monotypes, rich colors are built up with soft crayon marks which contrast with scratchy sgraffito, revealing underlying layers of color.

Richard Hull is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute Chicago, where many of Chicago’s legendary Imagist painters showed and taught in the late-1970’s, and their influence on his work is clear.

Richard Hull has had over 40 solo exhibitions, and his works are in the collections of several museums including the Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the Smithsonian Museum, Washington, D.C.; Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Smart Museum, Chicago. He has exhibited his work at the Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City; the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT; Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, ME; Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, OH; Portland Art Museum, OR; the Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH; Herron Gallery of Art, Indianapolis, IN; Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI; Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Evanston IL; and the Painting Center, New York, NY.