Patrick Webb — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

Sep 25

Sep 25 Patrick Webb

Biography

Webb’s paintings since 1990 explore contemporary stories of a queer version of the Italian clown Punchinello. “Slimmer, without hump, and driven by his appetites” (Grimes), Punch’s experiences do and do not parallel those of the artist—an I not I. Initially the figure faces the HIV epidemic in a “contemporary dance macabre” (Kunitz), but like the artist Punch survives. He enters the gym in Punchinello Works Out—paintings of longing and physicality (Weinberg). In the early 2000s Punch heads out onto NYC city streets to be ignored, to work as a delivery man, and to travel through his uncanny existence (Kloppenberg). Punch lolls about and roasts marshmallows with others “On the Beach at Night”, paintings inspired by childhood summer-night bonfire picnics. Webb received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2016 for his “Tinker Tailor Paintings”, which raise questions of queer identity in the 21st century (Katz). He received 3 NEAs, 2 Ingram Merrill Awards, an Art Matters Grant, and an award from Collex for their themed competition “Every Day Battles.” He received the Artvita grand prize for “Central Park” and a grand prize from See/me in their competition “True North.” He retired from a tenured professorship at PRATT in 2023.

Artist Statement
My conception of Punchinello began in 1990. I had been looking for a central character to whom the tragedies of the HIV epidemic would happen. In my reimagining of the Commedia dell’Arte clown, I found a masked figure whose history was one of subversion. He is without a face behind his mask (Agamben), the mask that marks him as singular. Each cycle of paintings presents a narrative idea of place and action. The paintings become an exploration of the strangeness of being both in how Punchinello acts in the world but also in how the pictorial construction creates his world. Punch is both I and not I; moving from the other to the Other in unpredictable ways. His passage navigates an uncanny (Freud & Heidegger) journey that aims to knot the symbolic and the imaginary to the real (Lacan). These 5 paintings explore a journey through the erotic and the tragic.

Country United States

Website http://patrick-webb.com

Instagram @patrickwebb115