Broken Paintings
(2007 - present)
I made my first broken panel painting Pink Nightmare in 2007. It was a visceral response to the endless stream of images in the news of graphic violence in the Middle East and beyond that resulted from the US invasion of Afghanistan and subsequently Iraq. In one newspaper clipping that I still have in my studio, a photojournalist captured the aftermath of a suicide car bombing, an utterly charred and obliterated outdoor market where the bodies of the dead were covered with baby pink blankets provided by the Red Crescent. It was a horrifying, geometric abstract image.
Pink Nightmare was first made as a pristine monochrome painting, which I then completely demolished with a hammer until it was a shell of its former self. It was created and then destroyed. Unlike artists such as Lucio Fontana and other precedents who pierced the surface of a painting in a tasteful, aestheticized way, I was determined to make something violent and horrific, even vulgar. For me, Pink Nightmare and all of my subsequent broken paintings are a kind of exorcism. Most of the works in this ongoing series were produced in response to the continuing political and cultural crisis here in the United States and abroad, which started after September 11 with the second Bush administration and continued through the Trump presidency. The titles of the works are derived from political propaganda, military jargon, and other related sources.
Exhibition Views
Exhibition view in Sharper Image, Present Company, Brooklyn, NY, 2017
Exhibition view in Sharper Image, Present Company, Brooklyn, NY, 2017
Exhibition view in Colour Light Time, Two Rooms, Auckland, New Zealand, 2010; Organized by David Thomas
Exhibition view in Colour Light Time, Two Rooms, Auckland, New Zealand, 2010; Organized by David Thomas
Exhibition view in Presque Rien 2, Laure Genillard Gallery, London, UK, 2008; Curated by Gavin Turk & Cedric Christie
Paintings
Matthew Deleget, Pink Nightmare, 2007, Acrylic on panel, hit with a hammer, 18 x 24 inches (#49)
Matthew Deleget, Black Operations, 2008, Acrylic on panel, hit with a hammer, 18 x 24 inches (#544)
Matthew Deleget, No Man’s Land, 2008, Cadmium red light acrylic paint on panel, hit with a hammer, 18 x 24 inches, Private collection, New York, NY (#36)
Matthew Deleget, High Value Target, 2014, Fluorescent orange enamel spray paint on panel, hit with a hammer, 24 x 24 inches (#61)
Matthew Deleget, Dissuasive Fire, 2008, Fluorescent orange acrylic paint on two panels, hit with a hammer, 16 x 16 inches each, diptych, Private collection, Melbourne, Australia (#169)
Matthew Deleget, Confident Liar, 2017, Acrylic on panel, hit with a hammer, 24 x 20 inches / 61 x 51 cm (#199)
Matthew Deleget, Moneygrabber, 2017, Acrylic on panel, hit with a hammer, 24 x 20 inches / 61 x 51 cm (#200)
Matthew Deleget, Illicit Gains, 2017, Gold acrylic on panel, hit with a hammer, 24 x 20 inches / 61 x 51 cm, Private collection, Germany (#198)
Matthew Deleget, Calculated Chaos, 2017, Acrylic on panel, hit with a hammer, 24 x 20 inches / 61 x 51 cm (#197)
Matthew Deleget, Lethal Support, 2014, Acrylic paint on panel, hit with a hammer, 24 x 20 inches / 61 x 51 cm, Private collection, Brooklyn, NY (#468)
Matthew Deleget, Fake News, 2017, Graphite acrylic on panel, hit with a hammer, 14 x 11 inches / 36 x 28 cm, Private collection, Brooklyn, NY (#202)
Matthew Deleget, Failed State, 2014, Acrylic on panel, hit with a hammer, 24 x 24 inches, Private collection (#73)
Matthew Deleget, Warlord, 2014, Acrylic on panel, hit with a hammer 18 x 18 inches (#75)
Matthew Deleget, Downpresser, 2014, Acrylic on panel, hit with a hammer, 18 x 18 inches (#74)
Matthew Deleget, Death Benefit, 2014, Gold enamel spray paint on two panels, hit with a hammer, diptych, 24 x 43 inches overall, 24 x 20 inches each (#62)
Matthew Deleget, Oooo Oooo Oooo, 2014, Spray paint on three panels, hit with a hammer, triptych, 40 x 104 inches overall, each panel, 40 x 30 inches, Private collection, Panama (#48)
Matthew Deleget, Naysayers, 2012, Black and white enamel spray paint on two panels, hit with a hammer, diptych, Dimensions variable, 24 x 18 inches each, Private collection, California (#12)
Matthew Deleget, Third World Democracy, 2014, Enamel spray paint on three panels, hit with a hammer, triptych, 24 x 60 inches overall, 24 x 18 inches each (#60)
Matthew Deleget, Please You, Appease You, 2012, Two raw wooden panels, hit with a hammer, diptych, 24 x 52 inches overall, each panel 24 x 24 inches; Exhibition view in Matthew Deleget: Ceremony, Alejandra von Hartz Gallery, Miami, FL, 2012 (#4)
Matthew Deleget, Known and Unknown Knowns and Unknowns, 2010, Fluorescent yellow acrylic on six panels, three hit with a hammer, 20 inches high x 116.5 inches wide overall, each panel 20 x 16 inches, Private collection, Melbourne, Australia (#33)
Matthew Deleget, They Don’t Love You Like I Love You, 2009, Silver acrylic paint on 4 panels, hit with a hammer, 16 x 60 inches overall, each panel 16 x 12 inches, Private collection, New York, NY (#35)
Matthew Deleget, No If’s, No But’s, No Maybe’s, 2007, Acrylic on three panels, hit with a hammer, triptych, 24 x 68 inches overall, 24 x 18 inches each, Private collection, Los Angeles, CA (#170)