Tom Hück’s epic chiaroscuro woodcut triptych, “Electric Baloneyland”, is a biting critique of America in its current state, where the seemingly daily losses of liberty are becoming the norm. Pictorially the scenes play out in three scenes at a local county fair: a rollercoaster thrill ride featuring hooded klansmen speeding from a giant Uncle Sam’s mouth, a lady liberty-like mermaid being captured at a noodling competition, and a shooting gallery game where the targets are decapitated heads of the worlds most infamous dictators. Executed between 2013 and 2017, the prints are shown in the traditional triptych/altarpiece format with a pre-della. Hück’s work owes much of its inspiration to the masters of printmaking from the past, most notably that of Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). To date this is the largest print Hück has created, as well as being one of the largest chiaroscuro woodcuts ever made. “Electric Baloneyland’ was published in Austin, Texas at Flatbed Press and debuted at storied print dealer C.G. Boerner during New York Print Week in 2017.
Baloneyland has an element of underlying violence in its scenes. While the overall theme of the work is the loss of liberty in the United States, Hück uses images of weaponry throughout the work to enhance the narrative of how this loss may have come to be. In a 2017 interview with Sarah Kirk Hanley in Art in Print (January 2018), Tom Huck recalled “Being able to win REAL weaponry at a fair in the early eighties……….looking back on this it’s apparent to me that this was a symptom of an overall illness, especially in Rural America.”
“Electric Baloneyland” by Tom Hück is currently on view through 2024 at the Museum Of Fine Arts, Houston in The Nancy and Rich Kinder Bldg. Gallery 309
Courtesy of Tom Huck’s Evil Prints.