Two Malay Pirates in the South China Sea!

Joe Zucker established his reputation in the early 1970s with idiosyncratic paintings in a wide range of styles that often employ unusual materials (such as cotton balls and plastic). These five works on paper, from the 1970s and 1990s, reveal key themes in his work, including history, global politics, and popular imagery. They also highlight the connections between the imagery and the physical materials Zucker uses. For instance, the drawing First 100 yard roll of '96' width cotton duck..., a preparatory study for a series of paintings on thick cotton fibers, references Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin, a machine which revolutionized the production of cotton. The drawings also exhibit Zucker's long-standing interest in romantic heroes and protagonists, evident in Two Malay Pirates in the South China Sea!. He considered the nomadic lifestyle of pirates as a metaphor for the lives of artists, and the billowing sails of these ships as evocative of paintings on canvas.