Anthony Hassett
Anthony Hassett’s distinct drawing strokes — instinct with genius — defy the norm. They hardly define, rather they observe. Their portrayal is too vivid to leave room for the idea that the figures before us could ever be positioned otherwise, have superfluous lines or colors, or any other facial expression. If we can grasp his independent soul, we may begin to understand his liberated spirit. In this freedom, he is master of the elements of assertion and situation. The observer may approach Hassett’s art as he chooses. Some facet of it may resonate with him. He may scrutinize all aspects of it, in all the ways it strikes him, and arrive at various conclusions — he is free to make his own interpretation. So it is that the main strength of Hassett’s work is in bringing before us all the vitality of life and all the back and forth in fleshy lustiness and spirit. Placidly it presents before our intelligence the broad realm of human thought, action, undertaking, fatality, and the conundrums of this world: Nazism, the death penalty, sex abuse, beauty, Christianity, suicide, UFOs, ghosts, martyrs, eroticism, opium, police, the divine, and so on. Amazingly, his style increases the distance that separates us from ourselves, and the things that surround us; in it lies the true reality, a welcome call to open our eyes. It comes to us in a variety of profiles, directly in touch with our era. This is the mark of an intense talent. He draws the immediate. His art puts our daily life on hold, makes us suspend our habits; it settles a layer of knowledge between ourselves and materiality. Great authors force us to view things differently. Hassett’s creative skill opens out the whole of mankind before us, and it invites us to look at the world from within.Hassett’s distinct drawing strokes — instinct with genius — defy the norm. They hardly define, rather they observe. Their portrayal is too vivid to leave room for the idea that the figures before us could ever be positioned otherwise, have superfluous lines or colors, or any other facial expression. If we can grasp his independent soul, we may begin to understand his liberated spirit. In this freedom, he is master of the elements of assertion and situation. The observer may approach Hassett’s art as he chooses. Some facet of it may resonate with him. He may scrutinize all aspects of it, in all the ways it strikes him, and arrive at various conclusions — he is free to make his own interpretation. So it is that the main strength of Hassett’s work is in bringing before us all the vitality of life and all the back and forth in fleshy lustiness and spirit. Placidly it presents before our intelligence the broad realm of human thought, action, undertaking, fatality, and the conundrums of this world: Nazism, the death penalty, sex abuse, beauty, Christianity, suicide, UFOs, ghosts, martyrs, eroticism, opium, police, the divine, and so on. Amazingly, his style increases the distance that separates us from ourselves, and the things that surround us; in it lies the true reality, a welcome call to open our eyes. It comes to us in a variety of profiles, directly in touch with our era. This is the mark of an intense talent. He draws the immediate. His art puts our daily life on hold, makes us suspend our habits; it settles a layer of knowledge between ourselves and materiality. Great authors force us to view things differently. Hassett’s creative skill opens out the whole of mankind before us, and it invites us to look at the world from within.
