The definitive monograph on this major American painter, whose work is in some of the most important public and private collections in the country Three descriptive essays provide insight into Hannock's work including his major work The Oxbow, After Church, After Cole, Flooded, Green Light (Flooded Rivers for the Matriarchs: E. and A. Mongan), 1999, which hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Never-before-seen works including Northern City Renaissance, Newcastle, England, completed in 2008 for the musician, Sting as a gift to his hometown Stephen Hannock is a contemplative and iconoclastic artist who brings fresh vision and new insight into his studies of light and reflection in the landscape. His work, which echoes the tradition of the Luminist paintings of the 19th century, springs from a sensibility unique among contemporary artists. As in his well-known Oxbow series, his landscape paintings, subtly lit with the rising sun's rays over flooded waters, build their depth with the layers of lacquer Hannock adds; it is this polishing technique, adding as many as twelve layers to his oil paintings, that allows him to play with the reflections of light and shadow over his subjects.
At the same time, current events and moments from the artist's life are brought into his pieces in the form of messages, clippings and photographs built into the lacquered layers, which recede into the painting when viewed from a distance, making the work not only a representation of the subject but also a reflection of the life and preoccupations of the artist at a specific point in time. The final presentation is a painting that is deeply human, touching the viewer with its honesty, wit and humor. This richly illustrated monograph includes a wide spectrum of paintings spanning the artist's career, as well as drawings done while traveling in Asia, Europe, and North America, and of friends in music and the arts, at work in their homes and studios.