Art Lies, Volume 39, Summer 2003 Page: 66
This periodical is part of the collection entitled: ArtLies and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the UNT Libraries.
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DALLAS REVIEW
The Far Too Insular World of Chuck and George
Grey Matters Gallery
Doug DunlopBrian Scott and Brian Jones are longtime
friends and companions, who show together as
Chuck and George, two of many extensions of
their individual personas. Over the years their
work, steeped in printmaking and painting,
has become increasingly intertwined. Both
artists work on theater stage sets and murals,
as well as paint interiors with faux finishes
and trompe I'oeil affects. A majority of the
paintings in the show are on wood and display
an interior design quality, like texturally treated
walls, giving them a frescolike appearance,
while other paintings have the look of linen or
finished furniture.
Their paintings combine personal stories
with various art styles, pop, literary, and mythi-
cal references, in a theatrical reconfiguration
of a camp and kitsch magnitude. The use of
various styles and references gives their per-
sonal stories a broader appeal, more so than
a personal treatment could. One wall-sized
painting on canvas entitled Chuck and George
Take a Ride on a Borrowed Deus Ex Machina and
a Few Things That Really Happened on a Perfect
Day is infused with a multitude of references
including the two artists depicted like Watteau
style clowns with bloody faces, and a Bert and
Ernie flair, in a flying carriage lead by disfigured
and bloody cupids. The painting depicts a
personally infused narrative with a Wizard
of Oz inspired theme. The vision is a Rococo
delight, replete with Fragonard flourishes and
Gainsborough like foliage, but with a dark
twist. In this context, a friend is transformed
into Glenda the Good Witch. The dark forest
scene depicts Little Debbie stranded in a tree
and snack cakes falling to the ground. In
another scene Burt, of Sesame Street fame and
a personal personification of one the artists, is
being torn apart by a Chihuahua.
Childhood references like the Wizard of Oz
and Little Debbie are juxtaposed with other
images, like Romulus and Remus suckling
on a poodle, that are transformed through
the personal contexts of the artists, rendering
the personal iconic and mythic. This process
exemplifies the narcissistic action of how
worldly references are personalized into the
mundane. Their artistic process is a depiction
of how personal images and stories can be
transformed into literary, artistic, or cinematic
type figures or tropes in the theatricalized world
of the creative, which by its nature is inherently
narcissistic.Chuck and George, Tea Party, 1987-2003
A Chuck and George recycle painting, acrylic, oil, and graphite on panel
351/2 x 20 inchesPaintings like Tea Party and I Wasn't Born a
Monster employ a technique by which a print
created by the artists is transferred onto wood
and incorporated into the completed acrylic
painting. The two paintings display Chuck and
George's interest in Japanese prints and design
quality. Tea Party presents a tea ceremony and
references a number of Japanese prints with
its lyrical style and elegance-but there is a
twist. Two of the individuals depicted are liter-
ally dickheads. I Wasn't Born a Monster also
displays the influence of Japanese prints. The
painting is a diptych that combines the trans-
ferred print images with painted reproductions
of childhood photographs of the artists.
In depicting themselves and others, Chuck
and George re-contextualize the world through
their creative vision. This vision depicts friends
as images from their favorite paintings, as in
Oh Little Bird...SWAT! where a friend is depicted
as the common thrift store painting the Jade
Goddess. Thistle depicts the artists and friends
in Halloween costumes as personifications
from the artists' past and as stereotypical hill-
billy white trash. Mimosa and Little Dix Show
exemplify their use of pop culture and art-
related influences. Mimosa depicts the artists
transformed into the creepy twin girls from The
Shining. Little Dix Show depicts the artists in an
Otto Dix appropriated image, where a woman
with a zombielike expression sits at a tableChuck and George, Little Dix Show, 2003
Acrylic, joint compound, and urethane on panel
24 x 20 inches
smoking. The woman is merely a stage curtain
drawn back to show the artists looking like the
iconic "gay" couple Burt and Ernie. Burt is a
ventriloquist with dummy Ernie on his lap as in
some strange German Vaudeville act. Viewing
a Chuck and George show is like walking into
a drag show or a Halloween party where the
viewer, constantly meeting new characters, can
experience the artists' personally crafted theater
of the absurd.66 ARTL!ES Summer 2003
A- .
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Bryant, John. Art Lies, Volume 39, Summer 2003, periodical, 2003; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth228004/m1/68/?q=Art+Lies+Doug+Dunlop: accessed February 13, 2025), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .