Carroll Dunham
Hat on Shoulder, 2002
Mixed media on linen
37” x 34”
Student Union Collection of Contemporary Art, CU2005.3.1

American artist Carroll Dunham (b.1949) has established a strong reputation as both a painter and printmaker, though he is most well known as an imagist. Through comic narratives that combine elements of abstraction, figuration, graffiti, pop, and cartoons, Dunham continually develops each work, resulting in surfaces composed of many layers. In Hat on Shoulder, Dunham explores the relationships and tensions between abstraction and figuration. This work features the lapel, shoulder, and hat of Dunham’s imaginary character, Mr. Nobody. Many of his works feature Mr. Nobody in search of the orgone, or the so-called life source invented by psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957).

Reproduced with permission of the artist.