Ray Jet 2017

David Michael Hinnebusch made this mixed media work, Ray Jet, on canvas. With its clashing colours and bold gestural marks, the painting seems to reject conventional ideas about good taste and beauty. Made by an artist in the United States, the painting presents something of a puzzle. The pentagram, for example, might make us think about the occult or the counterculture. Is there a political dimension to Hinnebusch’s art? What does the title Ray Jet signify? Is the artist commenting on the social structures of his own time? To understand the painting better, we might want to look at other artworks by Hinnebusch and find out more about the artistic institutions with which he was associated. We might also want to consider what art critics have said about his work. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.