My Battle

Against Simplicity For Complexity Against Uniformity For Diversification Against Equalitarianism For Hierarchization Against the Collective For the Individual … Against Progress For Perenniality Against Mechanism For the Dream … Against Spinach For Snails Against the Cinema For the Theatre Against Buddha For the Marquis de Sade Against the Sun For the Moon … …

The irony if you will in all of this, the perversity if you prefer is that the backdrop of dramatic world events hasn’t changed they’ve just changed names. What was deemed five years ago as an “Axis of Evil”(Iraq, Iran and North Korea and later enlarged to include Cuba, Libya and Syria) has now ended in a crisis through poor diplomatic and ensuing military action in some cases, with each and every one of these newer Axis powers. History almost always repeats itself or perhaps it’s just mankind too bored, too lazy, “Fait comme d’habitude” as the French artist BEN used to say, to alter IT, in any significant manner. Perhaps Dali recognized this weakness within him, in mankind, and took this burden upon his shoulders and in his art to make a difference, to make a stand, to mark his territory by pissing on the pant legs of friends and foes alike. Tom Torluemke is cut from this very same cloth, this is the political backdrop he currently operates in front of, and he too would like to make a change and has for over twenty years now. If I had to add anything to Torluemke’s Battle, it would be:

Against the Possible For the Elusive

"Burning Bush"

Battles fought by an artist on canvas are not any less tragic or heroic than those fought in the trenches. It is after all about territory and how you occupy and build on it. Torluemke paints in mythical proportions, every square inch of paper or canvas is constructed of intertwining silhouettes, interlocking blocks of vivid color, veils of mosaic patterning, spurting, spilling, hovering transparent figurines blend in and out of the picture plane, every form, every color, every shape cascades onto the canvas, saturating it, soaking it in its pure sweat of physical and sexual energy. To rinse the eye, the viewer searches in vain for a visual place of refuge, a place to rest a moment, but there is none as you discover that you’ve been absorbed into another dimension. Torluemke’s paintings are complex organic and sometimes frightening chaotic works that can be difficult to read in all their allegorical wonder – it is to this viewer, their strength and weakness. It hardly matters though once you’ve witnessed the spectacle before you. It is a one man show, a circus of surrealistic exhibitions and high-wire bravado, led and orchestrated by its ring leader, its Shaman of impressionistic magic and pimp of cock-sucking nymphs, of slithering voodoo spells and concocted potions, fed through the fertile and vivid imagination of Torluemke himself. These are great paintings and they are not left in the hands of mire mortals such as us. No God, no Poseidon, no Zeus would entrust such a gift, such a power to those who serve them and neither does Torluemke.

"Cream Pussywillow"




"Fertilization"

Torluemke is more often than not the lead character and director in his paintings; he is - a la fois – voyeur, exhibitor, victim, the innocent child, lover and conqueror. He is the artist’s model as well as the artist, the conductor as well as the orchestra – he leaves nothing to chance. He also has a huge dick and portrays it well. This isn’t a case of some school boy’s fantasy nor some hard-up loser who needs to get laid or even wishful thinking for that matter; he is simply man at his most primal and instinctual level.

It is difficult these days, perhaps only in conservative America, to portray sexual imagery in art. I’m not arguing that you have to or need to, Torluemke chooses to as it is a motor for the universe he has created. Some of us still remember 1989 when artists like Andre Serrano (“Piss Christ”) and Robert Mapplethorpe’s picketed and subsequently closed (censored) exhibition at the Corcoran in Washington, D.C., rocked the moral and religious foundation of the entire nation. It was also the blackest day for the N.E.A. and left thousands of artists wondering what they could or could not paint and how to survive without funding. Had “Big Brother” finally infiltrated the cultural ranks? Artists such as Serrano and Mapplethorpe were able to break the chains of a 19th century romantic and very classical image of the nude in art. I believe living today in an age of MySpace and You Tube, amongst the John Mark Karr’s, Miss Nevada’s and amateur videos of school shootings to convenience store robberies, it is far too easy to get trapped into any moral discussion about right and wrong and the portrayal of someone’s penis. Sex is politics and politicians have sex, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears strut their sex in front of the camera to sell records, and record labels hire fat bottom girls to sell their videos – it is all in one way a form of power and control, of image management and sophisticated propaganda. It is most of all confusing to the public’s eye.

"Isle of Love"

It is confusing because we have overall lost the ability to discern between what we believe in and what others believe, the ability to trust our instincts and basic human values, and the capacity too “see” clearly. If you can’t “see” past the sexual frolicking, the erect penises, the eroticized vaginas and heaving bosoms in Torluemke’s work, if you fail to see that these are tools, energized and powerful symbols and metaphors for encompassing the feelings and emotions of one’s struggles, victories, battles, passions, loves won and lost, death and re-birth, memories, the entire flotsam and jetsam of the entire universe and mankind’s history on this earth ad naseum, well my friend, you may have cheated yourself out of the “plus belle histoire du monde” – your own. The experience, don’t you see it, the experience of been there, done that, felt that, lived that, tasted that, saw that and even fucked that – not mediocrity or boredom, but the curiosity and courage to keep searching for the elusive, never satisfied never dissatisfied, the journey, the desire to be better, this is and only this can an artist like Tom Torluemke bring to us and forever enrich our lives through his art.



HOWEVER, Torluemke is much more than the one-dimensional figure you see on the canvas, he is obviously a human being very much in tune with the events that affect him on a daily basis. The facility and energy that Torluemke holds in his hands is boundless and the imagery he chooses is limitless. The glue that holds it all together is to portray his vision by peeling back the layers of time, peeling back the layers of the human psyche, ridding oneself of all the excess of a materialistic and over zealous religious beliefs and returning to simpler times, to more innocent times, to the moments before Adam took his first bite. But we all know what happens next. Temptation and then banished forever from the Garden of Eden, forced into the nature without shelter, food or clothes. Torluemke’s figures stumble and fall, are lost and frightened, wondering aimlessly through the barren and treacherous landscape. With every action there is a reaction, a consequence, and a choice to be made and a price to be paid. Works such as “At the Edge,” “Fleeing the Lightening,” “Meteor Shower,” and “Keep Swimming” are apocalyptic visions of a 21st century Garden of Eden, spent and used, raped by the excess of man’s undaunted desire to exploit, conquer and destroy all of its natural and God given resources. Mother Nature has thrown in the towel and there is now Hell to pay.

"At the Edge"
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For all of the impending horrors bequeathed in this series of paintings, not all is lost, there is somewhere the sense that the survivors those lucky few, will somehow make it through the darkest hour. There is hope to be found in “Keep Swimming,” as a lone swimmer slices through the still waters after a disastrous Tsunami, the entire city underwater as he pushes on towards the setting sun. Or there’s the somewhat ironic “At the Edge” where millions have been herded to a lake or ocean ablaze in oily fire with nowhere to go as a fire storm rages behind them. Yet, there are people obviously singing and dancing as a lone tuba player belts out a song. These paintings can also be as tender and comforting as “Looking Up,” a couple stands naked, alone, embraced while gazing up towards the Heavens at the moonlit sky through a clearing in the thickly forested landscape. Or they can be comical as in “Meteor Shower,” as huge red hot meteorites coming crashing to Earth interrupting a couple’s amorous encounter. Despite their Biblical and Nostradamus-esque finale, these newer works by Torluemke are succinct and moving reminders of the power and responsibility that Man has in co-habiting with the environment and his fellow human beings.

"Meteor Shower"




"Keep Swimming"

In a more recent body of work, of many in Torluemke’s repertoire, there are paintings that are simply some of the most exciting to be seen, combining a lovely blend of vivid color and an economy of line. Once intersecting planes of color and pattern have retained their respective amoeba like boundaries, providing a clearer, more precise formal language – less is more they say and it works to Torluemke’s advantage. It’s as if the artist has grown tired of the intricate design and hidden symbols of previous works and has re-discovered the joy of painting with a quicker, looser line work, almost child-like in their rendering, almost ridiculously simple in their execution but oh so rich in their energy and presence. They bring to mind later career works by DeKooning and Phillip Guston in their joyful expression. Torluemke has always had a strong graphic underpinning in his work which enables him to compose and orchestrate his figures and imagery into one cohesive whole. “Keeping Watch” is an exquisite jewel of a painting so beautiful, so effortlessly constructed, so formally delicious of what probably could be the artist’s left hand cupping his fingers into a mock telescope that is holding, projecting, reflecting the artist’s big blue eye surveying a cove or fortress at the water’s edge. “Throw it Back” is another wonderful work in all of its geometric abstraction and infantile rendering and literal meaning of a fisherman doing just that, throwing back his catch as what looks like a pelican or sea faring bird flies overhead. “Perplexed” is an intriguing little work of a couple standing naked, holding hands in front of the lawn furniture, like some impromptu wedding portrait, even though the artist’s head has been replaced by that of a Cyclops. Once again, Torluemke has refused to relish in the possible and has reached for the elusive. That one Muse of pure imagination rests squarely on his shoulder, providing an endless vision of infinite possibilities and meaning, and a path to the soul that many artists can only hope to be blessed by one day.

"On The Way To The Hukilau"

I’m proud to have known and worked with Tom Torluemke since our early days in Chicago those many years ago when he came into my gallery. He is truly one of the finest artists I’ve met that has not once compromised his vision or his integrity. He has remained true to his art and has managed to seamlessly incorporate his life into it without once stopping his production, all the while helping others through community projects, and inspiring many art lovers and young budding artists in the making. He is a force to be reckoned with, has balls of steel and is the “nouvelle vague” in a contemporary art world drowning in uncertainty who’s job it is to, and I quote from Hunter S. Thompson: “… finally to tell it as it is, trying to see it all and especially the best, for to miss that part is to shovel shit on men who were born in quicksand and find no novelty in the heave and smell of doom.”

Kevin Freitas

More information:
Tom Torluemke
Uncle Freddy's Gallery

"Turning Point"
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