United States, (b. 1956)
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Butcher’s Shop II (Triptych)
- The Hog Series LXXVIII
- (1992-3), graphite, watercolor and Prismacolor on paper
- 40 x 96 in. (101.6 x 243.8)
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Editor’s Note:
Blackwell’s triptych featured here, ‘Hog Series LXIX: Butcher’s Shop I,’ is a montage that creates a dream-world of playful symbols and images. The painting is one of Blackwell’s ‘Hog Series,’ now totaling over 250 works and spanning over 17 years. In this series, Blackwell goes beyond the shared cultural memory of the pig rituals of the rural South and also draws on the universal memories of childhood tales.
“The Butcher’s Shop” is a surreal blend of visual styles and subject matter. Real pigs, toy pigs, cooked pigs and storybook pigs are shown with explicit links again to the art of Velazquez, and even Blackwell himself, who stands at the left edge of the canvas. As Blackwell, also a hog anatomist and funeral director, would put it; “the story of the Three Little Pigs has been dissected to create many dimensions of the characters.”
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Morning Tea II
- Hog Series CLIX
- (ndg.), lithograph
- 30 x 22 in. (76.2 x 55.9 cm.)
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The Greatest Show of Hogs III
- Hog Series LXXVII
- (1993), oil on canvas
- 38 x 48 in. (96.5 x 121.9 cm.)
About the Artist
Tarleton Blackwell, United States, (b. 1956). Blackwell is an artist, as well as a teacher and a licensed funeral director and embalmer. He is a native of Manning, South Carolina, a place which he still calls home and where he maintains his studio. Blackwell was educated at Benedict College and later at the University of South Carolina in Columbia where he gained received MFA in 1988.