Eric White: Hollywood Aesthetics and Insanity

 

Eric White is an artist painter born in the Midwestern United States and is a product of its regional blue-collar culture and its people. His canvasses depict vivid images of American heroes and contemporary themes of American life and scenery much inspired by the era of 1940s Hollywood cinema. Such thematic depictions are White’s commentary which present and examine the insanity of the influence of popular culture and how such insanity becomes commonplace in contemporary society.

White, an academically trained artist, is the grandson of a mechanical engineer and a top official of the Chrysler Dodge manufactory. The lineage and the culture are said to result highly productive traits in a child raised in such culture. In studying White’s history something interesting is learned about contemporary art and critical perspectives of it: It is said that contemporary artists of recent history tend to exhibit either imagination or technical skill, while an anomaly like White tends to exhibit both.

The cinematic quality of White’s paintings is heavily influenced by Hollywood productions and surrealists Salvador Dali, and Rene Magritte. This “Hollywood” aesthetic has made the work of White popular among Los Angeles art collectors and critics who feel a sense of connectivity to the scenery. As well, White’s work is popular with European collectors as it exhibits themes and ideologies (think Coca-Cola, Marilyn Monroe, etc.) that are distinctive of contemporary Americana.

In viewing White’s painted scenes, the images have a very strong and dynamic quality about them. They seem to be on the cusp of action or rolling along on a movie screen. One reminisces of the feeling of staring up at a giant screen and hearing a soundtrack. It is in such depictions that White’s vivied memory and imagination are evident. While Eric White tends to create reimagined versions of album covers his work should be easily remembered as the album artwork for Tyler the Creator’s album cover for Flower Boy.