Tom Slaughter
American Artist (1955 - 2014)
American Artist (1955 - 2014)
13 / 100
2011
Signed by artist
8" x 10"
Unframed
Poster
12 / 50
1993
Signed by artist
13" x 22"
Unframed
Tom Slaughter was an American artist best known for his boldly colored paintings and prints. The artist explored contemporary urban life through pure areas of color and graphic line drawing. Reminiscent of Stuart Davis paintings, Slaughter's work blurs the line between fine art and commercial design. He regularly produced posters, clothing, playbills, wallpaper, and children's books, while also creating paintings and illustrations. Born in 1955 in New York, NY, Slaughter's career took off after being discovered by the famed art curator Henry Geldzahler in the 1980s. He went on to become widely recognized, having many international exhibitions throughout the rest of his career. Slaughter died on October 4, 2014 in New York, NY. The artist is included in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York.
Tom Slaughter’s drawings, paintings, and cut-paper illustrations present objects and scenes from the artist’s life in New York and coastal Long Island. For Slaughter, the very familiarity of these images made them ideal subjects: “Icons…. these are my alphabet. I draw them over and over until they are part of my language. Sunglasses, bikes, hats, boats, buildings…they are all just part of an excuse to make images.” Icon Alphabet will combine Slaughter’s work as an artist and illustrator across media — “I paint, draw, cut paper, use a computer, and even an iPhone — it’s all the same hand.”
Slaughter’s images are quintessentially modern, their subjects rendered with deft vividness and graphic punch. The simplicity of Slaughter’s forms and the artist’s use of primary colors suggest ties to Henri Matisse’s cut-outs, or Alexander Calder’s mobiles. He once quipped: “I use primary colors, mostly because I never did take a painting class. The colors worked well enough for Calder and Lichtenstein.” Calder saw his abstract mobiles as “sketches” for “a system of the Universe, or part thereof,” and believed that “Secondary colors and intermediate shades serve only to confuse and muddle the distinctness and clarity.” This clarity likewise characterizes a modernist approach to architecture and design, which rejected excessive ornamentation in favor of a unified, streamlined whole. Slaughter’s own work pares down each “icon” to its most essential characteristics, making the visual language of modernist design accessible to young people and adults alike through his prints, posters, children’s book illustrations, and even wallpaper designs.
About the artist
Acclaimed for his playful prints, paintings, and designs, Tom Slaughter (1955 – 2014) illustrated 11 children’s books including Boat Works and Do You Know Which Ones will Grow? which was named a 2011 Notable American Library Association book of the year. He worked as a printmaker in collaboration with Durham Press for 25 years. His editions are included in the collections of MoMA and the Whitney Museum of American Art. His work has been the subject of over 30 solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Vancouver, Germany, and Japan.