From Daniel Gauss’ review for Arte Fuse:
Several months ago I wandered into ClampArt on a Saturday afternoon and saw that the gallery was primarily filled with large homo-erotic oil paintings attributed to Bruce Sargeant (1898–1938). There was also a nicely sized collection of his apparent mentor, Hippolyte Alexander Michallon (1849–1930). Sargeant’s work seemed more interesting to me, however, as it was a strange cross between hyper-realism and expressionism. The young male bodies were lustily detailed (as only a true lover of male flesh could accomplish), but the skin tone was often a rough blending of flesh tone and grayish green.
There was such an over-the-top, seething love for the male body, merged at the same time with an apparent pessimism toward the flesh and overall sense of dread, that I was amazed I hadn’t seen this person’s work in various museums. How could the work of this obscure genius have been overlooked?
View the exhibition
Browse all of Mark Beard’s work at ClampArt