Horror Vacui! (International) from the collection of UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art

Horror Vacui! (International), 2014

Oil on linen

10.5 x 13.75 in

Inv: 2019.15.001

In Storage

Matthew Couper
Horror Vacui! (International), 2014
Oil on linen
Gift of the artist
2019.15.001

This painting was made at a time when Couper was drawing metaphorical comparisons between Las Vegas and vampires, particularly Count Orlok in F.W. Murnau’s 1929 film, Nosferatu. When Murnau’s attempts to procure the rights to Dracula were unsuccessful he made his own version of the story by changing the names of the characters in a bid to evade the author’s estate. Just as Nosferatu points towards Dracula, so casinos like Caesars Palace and Paris Las Vegas point towards the cities they imitate.

In these Horror Vacui works, the artist hints at his interest in Murnau by giving each painting the same vignette lighting as the movie — dark around the edges and brighter at the center. He suggests a parallel between the immortality of a vampire and the city’s habit of imploding its landmarks and resurrecting them. Ambiguously half-rising, half-lying in their coffins, the classic signs are accompanied by a mirror and a knotted rope, significant objects in vampire mythology. Couper explains that he builds his paintings by beginning with the object farthest back in space — in this case, the coffins — and layering other objects — in this case, the signs— successively on top of them. Every object is completely painted, even when another object partly covers it. (DKS)

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From UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art

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About the artist

Matthew Couper

b. 1976

Matthew Couper graduated with a Fine Arts degree in New Zealand in 1998. In 2003, he was awarded a Royal Over-Seas League International Scholarship to work and travel in the UK. He returned in the following year to exhibit at Jerwood Gallery, London and to continue traveling in Europe. He held his first public gallery solo exhibition with published monograph, The Museum Of Inherent Vice at the Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui, after receiving a nine-month residency at the Tylee Cottage Artist in Residence program in 2007. His exhibition ‘Thirty-Three’ (with gallery publication) toured several New Zealand public art galleries and museums between 2011 and 2014. Recently, Couper has attended art residencies at Arquetopia, Puebla City, Mexico; Idem Paris Lithography Print Studio and Manoir du Bonhere, Normandie, France. His work was featured in a large State-wide survey exhibition at the Nevada Museum of Art in 2016 and 2017. He recently completed the inaugural Artist in Residence at aeolian acres/Elsewhere Studios in Paonia, Colorado, USA.
https://laluzdejesus.com/matthew-couper-in-memory-of-water/

Education:
1998 BFA, Quay School For Fine Arts, WRCP, Whanganui, New Zealand
1999 DipTchg, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand
https://www.saatchiart.com/mattcouper

Additional Details

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About the artist

Matthew Couper