About the Artist
The work of Michael Trull employs much of the visual language of the
Baroque masters Michelangelo and Caravaggio in an attempt to deal with
the very contemporary issues of race and gender and the challenges of
living in an overpopulated world where one must, without much choice,
live in close proximity with a vast number of strangers. This ability
to deal with these sensitive issues in a way that allows few to
approach the works with complete comfort can be seen in the aptly
titled The Many-Body Problem. Although the title refers to
classical astronomy, the main theme of the work itself deals with
mankind's often hazardous attempts to live in a world where the living
now out-number the dead. Race relations are alluded to in such works
as Black and White where Baroque bodies which appear Caucasian
and African American, tensely appear to struggle for dominance on the
canvas.
This appropriation of Baroque imagery and technique remains, however,
self-consciously post-Modern. Not only are contemporary issues
dealt with intelligibly, but the very rendering of the paint itself
claims its position and justification in this particular era of art
history. Although a cursory perusal of Trull's works may invoke
classical imagery, a more studied approach reveals the tension
between the at once fully conceived and composed renderings of the human
body, for instance, and the acknowledgment of the medium of the paint
and the flatness of the canvas. The bodies are often painted
monochromatically, a technique used to encourage a distancing from
reality on the part of the viewer; furthermore, over time one begins
to see Trull's indebtedness to the schematic drawing techniques of the
modern comic book. This tension becomes obvious in such works as
Wrought. In this work, the figures in the left third of the canvas
struggle as they appear to literally seep into the confines of the
canvas material, whereas the figures in the right portion of the piece
rise gloriously from the confines of this murk and instead, float in a
timeless void. Thus, Trull's work remains delightfully dualistic:
Baroque in style, yet Contemporary thematically and in execution.
--Kevin Clonts
Biographical Episodes
Michael was born and lives in St. Louis, Missouri. He created a stir in the first grade by drawing a turkey without tracing around his hand.
At nine he ran in front of a car during a game of tag in the alley behind his house. During the summer that he was in traction in a body case with a broken leg he had a lot of time to draw.
Michael went to art school with presumptions about what art should be, they were unnamed because he thought them self-evident: that representation was primary, the medium was only the medium, and the roles of process and product were not problematical. He found that, not only were they not accepted by everyone, they were accepted by almost no one. He left after one year.
A philosophy professor who regularly came in the bookstore where Michael later worked asked him one day what his degree was in. "The nearest thing I have to a degree is a high-school diploma," the artist answered.
"That's not a degree!" the professor said.
Michael told the professor how he had quit art school because they weren't teaching what he wanted to learn and was doing his artwork on his own. He mentioned that he had his slide portfolio there and offered to show it to the professor. The professor held it before the light and squinted, "Ah, a representationalist...a drop-out and a representationalist."
Michael is currently pursuing his art endeavors full-time and is no longer working in the bookstore. His work has shown in the Midwest and at the Artexpo in New York City.