Brutal Beauty
Drawings by Hugo Crosthwaite
27 February - 18 July 2010
San Diego Museum of Art, Balboa Park, San Diego, California, USA

A Tail for Two Cities: Part I (10:01)    Part II (9:22)
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Born in Tijuana, Mexico in 1971, Hugo Crosthwaite spent his childhood in nearby Rosarito. At a young age, he taught himself to draw after studying the black and white reproductions in books owned by his father such as The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri and Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. This formative experience led to a fascination with black and white compositions.

Crosthwaite received a B.A. in 1997 from San Diego State University. Though Crosthwaite currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, the influence of the Mexico-California border region lingers in his work. Filled with diverse and hybrid cultures, his work represents a synthesis of the art historical canon and contemporary human experience. He explores the immediacy of drawing, while simultaneously demonstrating a keen eye for detail. While Crosthwaite has depicted cityscapes of Tijuana through numerous drawings, this exhibition focuses on his rendering of the figure. Working primarily with charcoal and graphite, he melds the fragility of humanity with through references to popular culture, daily life, and recent history such as the events of September 11 and prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. His figures exude a brutal beauty: they are as awe-inspiring for their physical forms as they are for their dramatic sensibilities that suggest baroque, surreal, and film noir influences.

This exhibition is a testament to the powerful work being created by Crosthwaite, an artist with local origins. During the course of the exhibition Crosthwaite will create a new work that will complete this installation and will become a part of the Museum's permanent collection.

- Curated by Amy Galpin, Project Curator for American Art

Hugo Crosthwaite | Brutal Beauty, San Diego Museum of Art
Untitled, Tijuana June July 2006 no.1
graphite on paper
9.375 x 7.55 inches
Private Collection
Due to Crosthwaite's proximity to the city of Tijuana during his childhood and young adulthood, the energy, complexity, chaos, beauty, and seemingly contemporary baroque qualities that emanate from the city permeate his work. This image was inspired by a return to Tijuana following a period of homesickness and calls to mind his many drawings that emphasize the architectural design of the urban environment. The woman behind the counter represents the many strong women who work in the city's various stores and restaurants. On the right, a scantily clad woman emerges from the darkness. The figural renderings in the composition represent a common technique employed by Crosthwaite in which he combines seemingly disconnected forms into a cohesive and structured composition.