Ansel Krut (b. 1959)

'I try to create strange juxtapositions in my work, to build a kind of contradiction in pictures. Head with Bottles is about having a hangover. I don’t drink but on the odd occasion when I do it goes straight to my head, so here I’ve painted alcohol being poured directly into someone’s brain. The colourful strands are the hair, but also the contents of the bottles and brain leaking out. They look like fingers running along the bottom of the canvas. I like these because they introduce a strange possibility of movement. All of my works create a series of conflicting or paradoxical expectations, and this includes the tradition of picture painting. I draw from both classical portraiture and cartooning to reconcile these traditions. I see cartooning as the same as any other art historical genre. I like the direct flatness that facilitates the immediate understanding of something.'
ANSEL KRUT