Thaddeus Radell: Essays in the Epic

Thaddeus Radell, Blinding of Oedipus, 2014-7, oil & wax on panel, 48 x 40 inches (courtesy of the artist and John Davis Gallery)
Thaddeus Radell, Blinding of Oedipus, 2014-7, oil & wax on panel, 48 x 40 inches (courtesy of the artist and John Davis Gallery)

John Goodrich reviews Thaddeus Radell: Hard Rain at John Davis Gallery, Hudson, New York, on view through June 18, 2017.

Goodrich writes: "Throughout these paintings, the candid attempts and re-attempts to define each subject become, in effect, stories of their own: encapsulated histories of a transcendental quest. Radell’s work, in short, revels in the epic in all senses: assuming it as a core value of painting, applying it as narrative, and ingraining it as a pictorial force. Absorbing his paintings, we sense that the epic is alive and well, and will remain so just as long as there are painters like Radell to pursue it."