Four Men in Formal Attire (after Guston) (Primary Title)
Charles McGill, American, 1964 - 2017 (Artist)
The golf bag is an inherently political object. I have found a platform from which to examine its emblematic power by personifying the human character and, by extension, create compelling frameworks of theatrical narratives." —Charles McGill
Inspired by his love of golf, McGill transforms the “baggage” of the sport into critiques of race and class. His works include golf bags covered with racist imagery; photographs of himself teeing off in Harlem from a pile of watermelons; and the fictional avatar of Arthur Negro, sole founding member of the Former Militant Golf and Country Club.
This work is from Skins—his collages of gutted and flayed golf bags. The use of found materials nods to John Chamberlain’s car-part sculpture and Claes Oldenburg’s soft vinyl works, while the rain hoods cap off an uncanny, even sinister, figurative presence, recalling Philip Guston’s Klansmen paintings from the 1970s—an allusion heightened by the visceral quality of McGill’s works.
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