Daniel Duford and Fighting Men
October 29, 2012
Faculty member Daniel Duford has curated the current exhibition at the Hoffman Gallery at Lewis & Clark College, Fighting Men: Leon Golub, Peter Voulkos, and Jack Kirby. Fighting Men looks at images of violence and masculinity in and through the work of Leon Golub, a painter, Pete Voulkos, a ceramist, and Jack Kirby, a cartoonist. Duford is an artist and writer, a Ford Family Fellow whose work was most recently in the Portland2012 Biennial.
Duford says in an essay on the exhibition, “Jack Kirby (1917-1994), Leon Golub (1922-2004), and Peter Voulkos (1924-2000) occupy alternate dimensions. Their achievements are chronicled in different art histories, each with its own priorities. They were all immersed in discredited mediums and subject matter. They don’t fit neatly. At times their work looks conservative and backward; at other times those same qualities seem urgent and prophetic. They rooted around in the mud of history and myth, emerging with their own muscular and ham-fisted approach to their respective materials.
“The specter of violence and the consequences of power animate this exhibition. Raw power emanates from the artwork.”
The exhibition closes March 3, 2013. The Ronna and Eric Hoffman Gallery is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11-4.