Artists - Part 19

Richard Taddei

Richard Taddei, shown with his painting called Gargoyle, was born in New York in 1946.

At first, his work was in the classic tradition of male nude figure studies, such as Sleeping Nude, 1986.  He said, "As a gay artist, my erotic preoccupation must unashamedly be the male nude. Why should I try to idolize the female nude, which has dominated art for five hundred years?

As time went on, his style began transforming, with geometric fragments starting to intersect the figure.  Above is Reclining Nude I (Bertrand), 1994.

By 2001 we see images in his characteristic style, fragmented, yet recognizable.  He wrote, "Let the photographer present us with the all too real world. As a painter, I escape into another dimension ... a universe of myriad lighting effects; a place where I am like a god wielding my brush, not captive to traditional notions of artistic rectitude. A surrealistic landscape of the body emerges, an anatomy of my own creation."  Above is Achilles and Patroclus, 2001.

Above: Fall of Phaethon, 2008, another classical subject from Greek mythology done in a non-classical style.  To me, the effect of some of his paintings is almost like stained glass.

But he also wrote, "While I am striving to create this new world of perceiving the figure, I sometimes re-visit reality to do a portrait of a friend or even a nostalgically academic nude study."  This is Tropical Nude Study II, 2008.

Above: Sleeping Bacchus, 2010.

Wounded Warrior, 2012.

Casting Spells II, 2017.

Apollo on the Beach, 2018.  Taddei wrote, "Art should not be polite nor should artists be dishonest to their true natures by avoiding their particular sexuality or in depicting the essentially sorrowful yet sublime nature of the human condition."

You can see dozens more of Taddei's works on his website https://www.richardtaddei.com.