FROM
HUOT
I was born in 1935 and spent the first twenty years of my
life on Staten Island. In the prewar years and well into
the 50’s, it was still largely unsettled. There were
farms, extensive wooded areas and wildlife. I loved to be
outside and spent much of my free time in the woods or at
the beach. In 1969, I bought an old farm in Chenango County
in Central New York. Over the years, I’ve restored
the buildings, fixed the fences, and reseeded the meadows.
I raised dairy cattle, Jersey and Holstein, and put in my
won hay. Part of everyday is involved with “nature”
for better or for worse. Consequantly, every thing I do
is informed by nature including my art. As a human I am
part of nature so what I make could be considered an extension
of nature, but not an imitation of nature. My paintings
are not pictures. They are paintings. They are artifacts;
they are acrylic paint on cotton canvas.
Three
generations ago, most Americans lived in rural regions and
were involved to some degree with agriculture. Today at
least 85% of our people live in urban and suburban communities.
Interestingly, agriculture remains amoung the top three
industries or our state and I have become a part of it.
Art and agriculture are two of my major pre-occupations.
I
started my art career as a painter. I’ve done many
things along the way, but I’ve continued to do things
that might be called painting and always have thought of
myself as a painter.
For
me, the 60’s and 70’s were filled with many
important moments: The Vietnam War, marriage, birth of my
son, divorce, a second marriage, and many other events and
influences. Among those influences was R. Buckminster Fuller.
I read all his written work, attended his lectures and exhibits.
For years I’d been looking for a different format
for painting other than the rectangle. (The production line
pushing out long strips of stuff chopped into rectangles
– dominating our vision.) Clearly there were shaped
paintings over the centuries right up to the shaped canvas
of the day, but – somehow that didn’t do it.
The shapes of those paintings were dictated by architectural
settings, arbitrary decisions or areas unaccounted for.
One of the essential factors of Fuller’s investigations,
was the equilateral triangle – the simplest most stable
structural form. Soon the equilateral triangle began to
be the basis for more and more of my image-making in all
media. (Interestingly, my wife, artist Carol Kinne, has
also worked extensively with the triangle.)
The
long journey of dematerialization has led to the cave –
to charcoal, blood and stains of berry juice. Benjamin,
I have succumbed to “aura” with lust and no
shame (and I set out to minimize material and celebrate
ideas). I hope I continue to celebrate ideas.
Acknowledgements:
I want to thank Sandy Wurmfeld and Susan Edwards for their
interest in my and my work and their willingness to put
themselves on the line. I want to thank Mary Murray and
Scott MacDonald for their flattering and insightful essays.
Thanks to my son, Jesse Huot, for his encouragement and
beautiful photos and to my wife, Carol Kinne, for her unerring
critiques and unwavering support. I also wish to thank Ed
Hettig and Vickie Looker for getting this catalogue together,
and special thanks to Mark and Barbra Golden, of Golden
Artist Colors, for their continuing support. The Hunter
College Art Department has been most helpful. Richard Stapleford,
Tracy Adler, Marianne Hall, Douglas Dibble and Michael Steger
have made essential contributions to the success of this
exhibition. Thank you all.
–RH– |
