Tom Huck : The Bloody Bucket Series
September 15 - October 15, 2005
The Bloody Bucket is a rough and tumble bar outside Potosi, Missouri. Established three years after World War II, it became a popular gathering place for veterans and witnessed numerous violent acts perpetrated by the patrons. Riddled with a history of depraved incidents, The Bloody Bucket provides seductive subject matter for Huck, a dedicated woodcut artist, who hacks out the stories, (actual events that took place between 1948-1951) of murdered sailors and pregnant brides table dancing, on these ten huge woodblocks. Huck recently completed the tenth and final woodcut in The Bloody Bucket series, "Suds: The Last days of Lactation". His most ambitious project to date, both in scale and technique, these ambitious woodcuts demonstrate a virtuoso cutting technique with intricacy, a range of surface, texture, tone and a masterful control of the blocks.
Staking a claim in the genealogy of woodcut, Huck links himself to Durer, Schongauer, Hogarth, Daumier and Beckmann. His prints are woodcuts in the grand grotesque tradition with claustrophobic, dizzying compositions _ in-your face and maniacal. Positioning himself as the small-town American answer to the classic European tradition, he draws his other heroes into the mix: Frank Zappa, Robert Crumb, a touch of Heavy Metal, and creates his monumental woodcuts and a personal brand he calls, rural satire.