Van Gogh's Ear, Naked Drawing

A very raw gestural drawing here results in a semi-abstract form that most resembles a nude adult male figure leaning backward from the viewer. It's head firmly held by the upper right corner of the picture plane, one leg thrusts out of the edge on the bottom right while the other leg appears bent and coming toward us in the middle of the space, its huge bare foot dominating the foreground and capturing our attention unavoidably. Left to balance the hefty weight of this full figurative component in the remaining left half of the rectangle is a small amorphous linear smudge which comes across seemingly accidentally resembling a detached human ear. The apparently wry intonation of the facial expression on the reclining character on the right feels in harmony with the tongue-in-cheek title for the piece. The rustic, imperfect application of primer and wood filler on the surface and edges, as well as the slight warp of the panel, are intentionally incorporated characteristics meant to keep in concert with the informal tone inherent in art made on discarded "found wood," a gesture imagined to have been appreciated by the non-commercial minded master to whose name the title alludes. Influences, among others, include Max Beckmann, Edvard Munch, Bob Thompson, George McNeil, Richard Diebenkorn, David Park, Francesco Clemente, R.B. Kitaj and Willem de Kooning.