The Superintendent (Primary Title)
Elizabeth Huey, American, born 1971 (Artist)
"I find myself frequently drawing parallels between the landscape and specific psychological behavior. I dissect and analyze occurrences and have a tendency to make visual symbols or analogies." —-Elizabeth Huey
Huey’s interest in the history of mental-health practice in America provides the subject matter for this painting based on the life of Thomas Kirkbride, a 19th-century mental-health reformer and architect. The Superintendent explores the themes of alienation and estrangement through the juxtaposition of appropriated images, the use of continuous narrative, and composite perspective. According to Huey, Kirkbride appears five times in the painting. In the foreground, for instance, he appears as a patient undergoing sensory deprivation in a “tranquilizing chair.” The violence that attends treatment is ever present in Huey’s paintings, as is a slippery definition of good and evil.
Huey’s interest in the history of mental-health practice in America provides the subject matter for this painting based on the life of Thomas Kirkbride, a 19th-century mental-health reformer and architect. The Superintendent explores the themes of alienation and estrangement through the juxtaposition of appropriated images, the use of continuous narrative, and composite perspective. According to Huey, Kirkbride appears five times in the painting. In the foreground, for instance, he appears as a patient undergoing sensory deprivation in a “tranquilizing chair.” The violence that attends treatment is ever present in Huey’s paintings, as is a slippery definition of good and evil.
Gift of the Fabergé Society of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
© Elizabeth Huey
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