William Anthony

13.08.2004 - 11.09.2004
The Ironic Icon. A Retrospective of the Works of William Anthony
Stalke Gallery, Copenhagen  proudly presents the first retrospective exhibition with American artist William Anthony.

The Ironic Icon that is the title that William Anthony has chosen for this retrospective exhibition of his work. With a conceptual and humoristic subtleness the title indicates that he is an artist who twists and turns the conventions, clichés of and preconceptions about the world of images. Whether they are appropriations of the works of classic and modern masters, covers for gay magazines, posters for Broadway shows, illustrations of the Bible (the only one Warhol could understand according to Warhol himself), W.W. II history and Western mythology, or cartoonish takes on social events or his private life, Anthony goes to work on the images with his characteristic unorthodox and original pencil. In his eyes and hands no image, type, style or period, is too sacred to be exposed to a process of continuous interpretive mutation and transformation. Thus, for more than 40 years now he has created a still expanding and diverse oeuvre of images; images where the familiar or recognizable becomes surreal, dumb, childish, grotesque, silly, vulgar, and disturbing in ways that make you smile or laugh out loud while wondering about the state and sanity of the world of images (and the artist).

The irony of Anthony’s icons is not a cool postmodern indifference or nihilism. On the contrary, it is an expression of honesty and no illusions. They depict man, this stereotypical creature with a grin of his face, as he really behaves, thinks, and looks behind the ideals of his narcissistic mirror; how he gets in his own way all the time and does not make a whole lot of sense. That is the irony Anthony deals with, or makes fun of, in his icons.


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