Richard Hawkins

It makes sense that an institution in Amsterdam originated Richard Hawkins’s first retrospective. The liberal beliefs, social tolerance, and general promiscuity that characterize popular images of the city likewise distinguish the Los Angeles–based artist’s own permissive practice, which swings from abstract paintings to collages and from haunted-house sculptures to a series of narrative paintings depicting sexually ambiguous men whom Hawkins refers to as “hallucinations from a Viagra overdose.” With the exception of the collages, which impeccably convey the fluidness of his imagination and desires, Hawkins’s works are regularly substandard when judged by purely formal criteria. For example, a painting titled Options, Not Solutions, 2004, is a cropped, three-figure, surreal affair that lacks compositional considerations and a genuine painterly touch. Yet because the artist’s libido and intellectual curiosity are the actual and enthralling subjects of his work, Hawkins’s amateurish canvases are instead tantalizing demonstrations of his twilight-zone thinking. If one were to consider him a slippery social bricoleur rather than a refined studio artist, one would realize that technical proficiency would only undercut his interest in skillful “bastardization.” This flush retrospective at De Appel underscores the interdependence of Hawkins’s strengths and limitations. Let’s hope an American institution sees fit to host it.