Untitled, New York #1-Victory Leading
2007
Hugo Crosthwaite 
Graphite and charcoal on paper
84" x 96"
Photo: courtesy Noel-Baza Fine Art and the artist

Hugo Crosthwaite’s La Cola de dos Ciudades, (A Tale of Two Cities), (2010), and Bartolomé, (2004), are the dominant works of “Brutal Beauty,” his current show at SDMA. La Cola de dos Ciudades, inspired by Crosthwaite’s birthplace Tijuana, highlights conflict between Tijuana and San Diego. Dickens’ famous novel A Tale of Two Cities, Goya’s Duel with Cudgels and Kahlo’s The Two Fridas provided source material. The drawing features two anguished males depicted in a graphic/Pop Art style influenced by Crosthwaite’s recent years in New York and DC comics. Crosthwaite is a superb draftsman, and the fact that he created this work in three weeks in front of an audience is a feat. However, his ‘deconstruction’ process—masking sections of the drawing and painting over them with white paint creates a stark effect. Influenced by an experience where his mural was destroyed, Crosthwaite sees the blank squares as reflecting loss and providing space for viewers to visually complete the work. Unfortunately, the squares have the unintended effect of blocking the viewer’s gaze.

In contrast, Bartolomé, featuring a classically drawn martyr, is powerfully consuming. It hits you on both a visceral and conceptual level. Evoking the collision of sensuality and violence found in a Caravaggio or Delacroix, Bartolomé features the saint flayed alive by a cheese knife. Initially, Crosthwaite found humor in the association between the saint and cheese guilds. However, once news of Abu Ghraib broke out during the creation of the piece, it took on a darker tone. Dense space, overlapping figures, and detailed Tijuana architecture encourage contemplation. Hooded figures portraying both the tortured and torturers conjure Abu Ghraib. Like Picasso’s Guernica, it conveys the human potential for destruction and suffering.

Dark Dreams at Noel-Baza Fine Art covers Crosthwaite’s career over the past decade. The standout is Untitled New York #1-Victory Leading, (2007). Composed of 21 drawings adhered to create one confrontational graphite and charcoal drawing it reflects the verticality of New York architecture and is a contemporary take on Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People. Crosthwaite’s Marianne is a voluptuous pinup with an exploding breast. Crumbling towers referencing 9/11 are juxtaposed with political slogans on billboards. A foreshortened Daumier-type male with a strategically placed Pop style rocket addresses the propaganda of war. Apt at merging the canons of art history with urban architecture, Crosthwaite renders beautifully brutal works that provoke and engage.