#robpruitt

Rob Pruitt is a contemporary American artist. Throughout his career he has fine-tuned his ability to express nuanced ideas about culture and society through re-interpretation of common objects and materials, all filtered through a sense of humour and irony. Spanning the disciplines of painting, sculpture, photography, and performance, his practice often bridges the gap between art and life. 

In ‘The Suicide Paintings’ for example, the colour combinations are more complex and there are no emoticons to tell us how we should feel, as suggested in other works of his. The colour’s intensity varies depending on what frames it or surrounds it. Each canvas has a generous border that is also a colour gradient, which often works to balance or enliven the colour in the centre.  

Born on May 17, 1964 in Washington, D.C., Pruitt went on to study at the Corcoran College and the Parsons School. He has regularly exhibited with Gavin Brown's Enterprise in New York, and has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, the Aspen Art Museum, and LAND in Los Angeles, among others.

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1. Rob Pruitt, A Month of Desert Sunsets, 2021

2. Rob Pruitt, Gradient Studies, 3 Panels, 2017

3. Rob Pruitt, Suicide Painting VI, 2013

4. Rob Pruitt, Suicide Painting XII, 2013

Contemporary artists that involve drug taking within their work are usually the ones we see taking the drugs. Perhaps for the reason of unlocking a creative process or simply to experience something unnatural happen to their body. But Rob Pruitt changed this idea in 1988 with his piece, Cocaine Buffet.

Rob Pruitt is known for using humour within his works, quite a few of his works have caused outrage of being deemed too insulting to the artworld. His works have been deemed as quite controversial. Although, he challenges this with his methods and techniques of defining what exactly contemporary art can be.

Cocaine Buffet Grand Prix is a 16 foot curving mirror imitating a toy racing car track which lies on the floor with a cocaine line stretched across the entire mirror. You would think 16 feet of cocaine probably isnt cheap but Pruitt bought the drug and invited his viewers to get down and sniff the cocaine, if they are happy to be photographed doing so.

Pruitt was asked in an interview with Artspace in July 2020, “Humor plays a huge part in your art which is relatively unusual. Why? “ He responded to the question ,”This may sound like an oversimplification, but I’m really drawn to art that causes some kind of physiological change in the viewer. Most obviously the cocaine work — after ingesting the cocaine, that was the sculpture, the viewer’s perception of the work was most definitely affected.” (Artspace, 2020)

To see more of this interview, click below.

https://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/meet_the_artist/interview-rob-pruitt-on-his-new-artspace-and-public-art-fund-limited-edition-print-stronger-56606

This points out that he wanted to change the perception of the viewer when they saw the artwork through the drug.

Pruitt was asked by the observer in an interview how long it took the cocaine line to be sniffed by its visitors.

He replied that “Nothing was spoken about it. It was just simply there in the center of the space,” he said. People “didn’t know if it was baby powder or sugar or the real thing. The trepidation lasted for about an hour. Then, somebody fell to their knees. Then there were three brave souls. They broke the ice. … And then it just became like a free-for-all.” The cocaine “only lasted for about 10 more minutes,” the artist said.

However, as you can imagine this artwork caused quite the scandal when it was on display and caused great controversy by art critics. Perhaps, you might think this type of performance has to be illegal and it probably was but that's never stopped Pruitt before.

It could not only portray the changing of traditional art methods but also questions the exact meaning of the piece. Is it a peace offering? A minimalist performance artwork? A portrayal of greed? Is it just simply to cause controversy and grab people's attention? Or maybe bring a group of people with a similar interest together, however, with the use of contemporary art like this, there should be a million questions about what it exactly means. In my opinion I think the mystery behind it is what gives the artwork its originality and exhilaration.

Shown below is just a few images and a link of the snow white free for all.

http://www.robpruitt.com/1990