H. Craig Hanna
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H. Craig Hanna (born 1967), is an American figurative painter living in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
.Peintures et Dessins de H. Craig Hanna à l’Orangerie du Sénat
(Paintings and Drawings by H. Craig Hanna at the

') Arte Media, 16 July 2010: "...Nous aimons l’idée d’associer des œuvres peintes à un travail plus photographique, de présenter des techniques anciennes à une technique beaucoup plus moderne. Les portraits de H. Craig Hanna sont si bouleversants que les agrandir nous permet de les voir autrement, détaillés laissant ainsi l’émotion nous submerger. Des portraits monumentaux.-- LEG Team ("We like the idea of associating painted works with a work more photographic, to present ancient techniques to a much more modern technique. The Portraits of H. Craig Hanna are so overwhelming that enlarging them allows us to see them otherwise, the details allowing emotion to submerge us. Monumental portraits.")

("The sketchbooks of H. Craig Hanna"), ''
Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
'', 5 October 2009, "...Première monographie consacrée à H. Craig Hanna, la Laurence Esnol Gallery rassemble dessins, croquis et textes de l'artiste issus de ses "sketch books" sur une période de plus de dix ans." ("First solo exhibition devoted to H. Craig Hanna, the Laurence Esnol Gallery brings together drawings, sketches and texts by the artist from his "sketch books" over a period of more than ten years....") Accessed June 11, 2014,
The
National Museum of History and Art The National Museum of History and Art ( lb, Nationalmusée fir Geschicht a Konscht, french: Musée national d'histoire et d'art, german: Nationalmuseum für Geschichte und Kunst), abbreviated to MNHA, is a museum located in Luxembourg City, in ...
(MNHA) Luxembourg, which hosted an exhibition of his work in 2016, describes his work with the following: “He reinterprets the history of European painting through the eyes of a master draughtsman and the unique viewpoint of an artist of his time by developing his very own technique (painting on Plexiglas) featuring striking colour effects and compositions.” Craig Hanna at the MNHA
/ref> In addition to Paris, he has lived and worked in
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
,
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and
Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
."Right Outside my Window"
''The Malta Independent'', 23 April 2006, Accessed June 11, 2014


Early life and education

H. Craig Hanna was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1967. He has been drawing since his childhood. He earned his BFA from
Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...
in 1994 and his MFA from the
School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by ...
in 1996. He started doing figurative classical painting from life at that time. His teacher John Foot introduced him to the Great Masters of figurative painting, such as
Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...
, Velasquez, Sargent and
Ingres Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ( , ; 29 August 1780 – 14 January 1867) was a French Neoclassicism, Neoclassical Painting, painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic ...
. The
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
played an important role in the painter’s artistic education.H. Craig Hanna
interview Dooboomgeishart
2008
In 1998,
Bergdorf Goodman Bergdorf Goodman Inc. is a luxury department store based on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York. The company was founded in 1899 by Herman Bergdorf and was later owned and managed by Edwin Goodman, and later his son, Andrew Goodman. To ...
held his first solo show in New York. Since, he has had shows in London, in Hong Kong and in Malta. Shortlisted in 2001 and 2006 for the National Portrait Gallery Portrait Award, he was rewarded in 2001 for his work 'Carlos sitting on a clear plastic chair'. After his first Parisian exhibition in June 2008, he chose to settle in Paris. In September 2008, Laurence Esnol Gallery opened to solely represent the works of H. Craig Hanna.


Art

The work of H. Craig Hanna continues in the tradition of Ancient Masters. His choices in terms of framing, color, composition and model root him in his time and century. His influences range from classical western painting (
Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...
, Rembrandt, Velasquez) to masters of the 19th century (Sargent, Whistler) and of the 20th century (
Klimt Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's prim ...
, Schiele,
Lucian Freud Lucian Michael Freud (; 8 December 1922 – 20 July 2011) was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists. He was born in Berlin, the son of Jewis ...
). Ancient Greek sculpture is also a major source of inspiration. His portraits convey a strong human dimension, with particular emphasis on the subject's vulnerability, mitigated by a sense of benevolence. H. Craig Hanna often chooses his models according to their distinctive intensity. Each portrait is hence an expression of the model's singularity. Hanna's technical mastery expresses itself in many ways, from oil paint on wood or canvas to works on paper (oil pastel, pencil, charcoal…). The use of reverse plexiglas paint was a breakthrough in his work. Experimenting with the possibilities of this technique, playing with the effects of depth and transparency for instance, enabled him to explore new artistic paths. Journalist and art critic Christopher Mooney describes his work as following: ‘While antecedents are visible in HANNA’s pictures, in both their contents and surfaces (...) HANNA pushes past these to create vital works that are brashly contemporary and unmistakably his own.’ H. Craig Hanna does so ‘by eschewing, even sabotaging, the strategies of most contemporary figurative painting: he chooses his subjects from “life” instead of photographs; he roots his formal concerns—line, color, brushstroke, scale—in painterly traditions; and, borrowing a forgotten form of outsider “folk” art—fixé sous verre in French, Hinterglasmalerei in German, “reverse-painting” in English —he inverts the usual process of painting by doing it backwards, on Plexiglas.’


Recognition and honors

In 2001, H. Craig Hanna was commended in the London National Portrait Gallery contest for his painting Carlos Sitting in a Clear Plastic Chair. His work was exhibited at the Orangerie du Sénat in Paris in 2010Peintures et dessins de H. Craig Hanna à l'Orangerie du Sénat
, artéMédia
and the National Fine Art Museum in Malta in 2006. H. Craig Hanna’s Arrangement of Dancers was acquired by the MNHA in 2015. The Museum held a retrospective of his work in March 2016.


Gallery

File:Arrangement of Dancers.jpg, Arrangement of Dancers, 2014


Exhibitions

*March–June 2016: H. Craig HANNA, Peintures et Dessins, MNHA, Luxembourg *February–April 2014: Landscapes, Laurence Esnol Gallery, Paris *January 2012: BRAFA 2012, Brussels, Laurence Esnol Gallery *November 2011: St’Art, Strasburg, Laurence Esnol Gallery *October 2011: SHOW Off, Paris, Laurence Esnol Gallery *May 2011: Art by Genève, Geneva, Laurence Esnol Gallery *January 2011: BRAFA 2011, Brussels, Laurence Esnol Gallery *November 2010: St’Art, Strasburg, Laurence Esnol Gallery *October 2010: SHOW Off, Paris, Laurence Esnol Gallery *August 2010: Orangerie du Sénat, Sénat, Paris, Laurence Esnol Gallery *April 2010: Lille Art Fair, Lille, Laurence Esnol Gallery *March 2010: Chic Dessin, Paris, Laurence Esnol Gallery *March 2010: Pavillon des Arts et du Design, Paris, Laurence Esnol Gallery *December 2009: St’Art, Strasburg, Laurence Esnol Gallery *November 2009 : Art en Capitale, Paris, Laurence Esnol Gallery *September 2009 : Salon des Collectionneurs, Paris, Laurence Esnol Gallery *June 2009 : Scope Art Basel, Basel, Laurence Esnol Gallery *March 2009 : Art Paris 09, Paris, Laurence Esnol Gallery *April 2008 : SLICK Dessin, Paris
Cynthia Corbett Gallery
*March 2008: SOBO GALLERY, Solo Show
Cynthia Corbett Gallery
, London Bermondsey Street *March 2008 : Red Dot
Cynthia Corbett Gallery
, New York *February 2008 : Nouveauté Gallery, Habitat Solo Show Kings Road, London *August 2007: Cuccumio Gallery, Solo Show Sardinia *March 2007: Blenhiem Gallery, Three Yellows Solo Show Notting Hill, London *June 2006: National Portrait Gallery BP Portrait Award, London *April 2006: National Museum of Fine Arts, Solo Show, Malta *September 2002 : Westbourne Studios, Gimme Five Group Show, London *June 2001 : National Portrait Gallery BP, Portrait Award, London *June 2001 : The Brick House Gallery, Solo Show Brick Lan, London *September 2000 : The Oxo Gallery, Group Show, London *February 2000 : Galerie Martini, Solo Show Wellington Street, Hong Kong *December 1999 : Blains Fine Art, Group Show Bruton Street, London *November 1999 : Groucho Club, Solo Show Dean Street, London *July 1998 : Lehman Sann Gallery, Group Show, Broadway, New York *June 1998 : Gallery At Bergdorf Goodman, Solo Show Fifth Avenue, New York *May 1997 : Belgrade Gallery, Solo Show, Wooster Street, New York *February 1997 : Space Gallery, Solo Show, Broadway, New York *March 1996 : School of Visual Art Degree Show, New York


Bibliography

*H. Craig Hanna, Peintures et Dessins, co-published by Editions Michèle and Laurence Esnol Gallery
''Sketchbook by H. Craig Hanna''
co-published by Somogy Éditions d'Art and Laurence Esnol Gallery.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hanna, H. Craig American male painters American portrait painters Painters from Ohio 1967 births Living people