Paul Thek, Afflict the Comfortable, Comfort the Afflicted, c. 1985. Synthetic polymer on canvas board, 18 × 24 in. (45.7 × 61 cm). Collection of Gail and Tony Ganz © The Estate of George Paul Thek; courtesy of Alexander and Bonin, New York. Photograph by Douglas M. Parker Studio.
“Paul Thek: Diver, a Retrospective” is now on view until January 9, 2011 at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. Paul Thek is one of the first artists to create environments or installations, as showcased in this exhibition. As you make your way through the show, you enter Paul Thek’s mind through his childish notes, his soft blue paintings, and his out-of-the-ordinary sculptures. His sculptural works truly reveal his disgust for the human body, and perhaps for his own. An example of this is his series “meat pieces”, sculptures of fleshy, sometimes gruesome parts of the body. Each gallery presents a different aspect of the artist’s work. Paintings are hung low in the final room, so visitors must bend down, almost as a commemoration for the late artist. These works are also the ones produced shortly before his death. Paul Thek, who was bisexual, died of AIDS in 1988, at the age of 54. “Diver, a Retrospective” also gives access to one of his masterpiece, The Fishman (1968), which is a horizontal body made of latex with fishes attached. Dive into Thek’s complex brain in this show, as it offers a great look at a too little-known artist.
Paul Thek, Untitled, 1966, from the series Technological Reliquaries. Wax, paint, polyester resin, nylon monofilament, wire, plaster, plywood, melamine laminate, rhodium plated bronze, and Plexiglas, 14 × 15 1/16 × 7 1/2 in. (35.6 × 38.3 × 19.1 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase with funds from the Painting and Sculpture Committee 93.14 © The Estate of George Paul Thek; courtesy of Alexander and Bonin, New York. Photograph by Geoffrey Clements.
