In this diptych, Lozano has made a utilitarian object monumental. Filling the canvases with thick gestural brushwork, she has imbued the head of a hammer with a lifelike quality, its head inclined and its tines flopped back like rabbit ears. Traditionally, paintings of this scale were reserved for lofty subjects: episodes from history, important personages, and other edifying imagery. In this painting—and in others, of wrenches, clamps, and screwdrivers—Lozano weds the mundane with the grand: the hammer's head clamps down as if determined to deal a blow to convention and construct anew.
Gallery label from What is Painting? Contemporary Art from the Collection, July 7–September 17, 2007.
In this diptych Lozano has made a utilitarian object monumental. Filling the canvases with thick gestural brushwork, she has imbued a hammer with a lifelike quality, its head inclined and its tines flopped back like rabbit ears. Traditionally, paintings of this scale were reserved for lofty subjects: episodes from history, important personages, and other edifying
imagery. In this work—and in others, of wrenches, clamps, and screwdrivers—Lozano weds the mundane with the grand.
Gallery label from 2011.
