Gary Hume

White Cube, London
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Colour: The tonality of the snowman is lead grey in the original. Please refer to the Contemporary department for further information. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Visible only under close inspection in raking light, there is evidence of very light rubbing and handling in isolated places.
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"The snowman is the perfect sculpture. Like the door was the perfect door. It works entirely in the round: you're supposed to be able to travel around it and there are no dead zones." (Gary Hume quoted in: Dominic Murphy, 'Little Promises', The Guardian, 7 September 2002, online)

Back of a Snowman is exemplary of Gary Hume’s celebrated Snowman sculpture series. Executed in 2001, this bronze cast, painted deep grey, depicts one of the later versions of the artist’s recurrent and iconic snowman subject which first appeared in a 1996 painting of two perfectly formed coloured spheres. At once joyful and enigmatic, the work and its title immediately release joyful childhood memories of playing in the snow, whilst the pure simplification of form infuses the sculpture with a striking abstract aesthetic. The shiny and glossy surface transforms Back of a Snowman into a veritable object of desire, eliminating any differentiation between childlike play and mature contemplation.

Whether in sculptures or paintings, and whether depicting a person, animal or plant, Hume is constantly reinventing how he addresses the figure, creating visually alluring shapes and compositions from body parts and outlines. He frequently investigates the way in which the body emits an emotional or sexual charge, or embodies the character of an individual. Painted in glossy charcoal, a nuance simultaneously forceful and austere, the present work stands in stark contrast with the bold chromaticity characteristic of the artist’s earlier output. A major exponent of the Young British Artists generation, Hume famously featured in the legendary Freeze exhibition staged by Damien Hirst in London in 1988 and subsequently represented the United Kingdom at the Venice Biennale in 1999.

An unmistakeable reference to the universal icon of childhood, the present work is a momentous embodiment of Hume’s signature exploration of themes surrounding memory, melancholy, romance, and beauty. As the artist commented himself: “I made snowmen to take photographs and then, quite a while later, I decided I could make a painting and then, having made a painting, I could make a sculpture. When I make a snowman, I make a romantic thing. I observe it but it doesn't observe me back. Like looking at a landscape.” (Gary Hume quoted in: Exh. Cat., Leeds, Leeds Art Gallery (and travelling), Gary Hume: Flashback, 2012, p. 24). Seamlessly blending geometric rigour and chromatic vibrancy, sculptural mastery and rich symbolism, Back of a Snowman stands at the pinnacle of Gary Hume’s idiosyncratic visual vocabulary to entice the viewer with striking visual and cognitive stimuli.