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Through the Fire to the Limit

William Villalongo and Lower East Side Printshop, New York

Through the Fire to the Limit

2005

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Through the Fire to the Limit

2005

Physical Qualities Color screenprint and archival inkjet print with collage elements, Sheet: 711 x 1016 mm. (28 x 40 in.)
Credit Line Gift of a MAD Gathering
Object Number 2014.34
Brooklyn-based artist William Villalongo uses a cartoon and graffiti aesthetic to render Hurricane Katrina as a raging monster with teeth, tongue, and four enormous eyeballs. Even as black clouds move away and the brilliant blue sky appears, bright orange flames and a hand floating in the water tell of immeasurable damage to life and property. One wonders whether Villalongo’s Saturday-morning-cartoon style makes the disturbing image easier to digest, or if the tension between subject and technique heightens the viewer’s feelings of alarm and dread.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 2014; Monroe Denton, Brooklyn, by purchase; Lower East Side Printshop
Ann Shafer, "On Paper: Alternate Realities," September 21, 2014 - April 12, 2015.

Inscribed: lower left in graphite: "13/40"; lower right in graphite: "W Villalongo 2006"

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