Artwork
Got it Bad
Artist
Erik Parker
(American, born 1968)
DepartmentContemporary Art
Date2006
MediumAcrylic on canvas
Dimensions66 x 60 in. (167.6 x 152.4 cm)
Credit LineSan Antonio Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Guillermo C. Nicolás, the Contemporary Art Visiting Committee Fund, and SAMA Contemporaries
Object number2013.29
Copyright© Erik Parker
GeographyPlace madeUnited States
DescriptionPortrait of a man rendered largely in black and white against a light blue background. The figure’s torso, neck, and bald head are heavily tattooed. His hands appear to pull at the center of his chest to reveal a bright red sacred heart.Label Text"In the history of figuration in the last century, it's Bacon
and Picasso who are the standouts for me. When I was
starting to delve into portraiture, Bacon was the person that
I looked at to see if I could push that to my idea of extreme.
I wasn't talking about things living in a space, these were
obviously completely made-up; I wasn't referencing the real."
Erik Parker
Parker brings the figurative tradition of artists such as Francis Bacon and Pablo Picasso into the 21st century by using a pictorial vernacular that is steeped in traditions of both highbrow and lowbrow art. For Parker, pop culture influences such as Mad Magazine and psychedelic posters and album covers were just as important in shaping his aesthetic sensibility as were the 20th century masters whom he admires. Another artist who was important in his development is Peter Saul, who was Parker's mentor at the University of Texas, Austin.
In this characteristic figurative painting, Parker depicts a monstrous crying head engulfed in a frenzied abstraction of swirling shapes rendered in jarring colors and with thick, vigorously applied paint. Camouflaged amidst the anatomical details are numerous phrases drawn from common street jargon, such as "Got it bad" (located just above the figure's eyes), which refers to an emotional state of mind and is also the work's title. Parker began incorporating words into his paintings in the late 1990's, motivated by a desire to create a visual equivalent for the fractured language of hip-hop music.
(David Rubin)
ProvenancePrivate collection, TokyoExhibition HistoryErik Parker: Half Cocked, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, December-January 2007SignedSigned, titled, and dated on overlapNot on view
Collections
Follower of Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes
Culture: Spanish
19th century
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
