ArtBeat: Richard Butler @ BCB Art in Hudson [Get Visual]
Review by David Brickman
You’ve heard Richard Butler – he’s the lead singer of the Psychedelic Furs, with the wonderful bass/baritone voice featured on the hits “Love My Way” and “Pretty in Pink” – but you may never have heard of him as an artist. Currently presenting new drawings and paintings at BCB Art in Hudson in a show titled Happinessisthespace betweensorrows, Butler amply demonstrates his skill in that department, along with a witty darkness that should come as no surprise from an original ’70s-era punk rocker.
What struck me first looking at Butler’s paintings is the fact that this guy is truly a painter – not some star who decided he wants to paint now, but a trained artist. Indeed, he graduated from art school in the United Kingdom, where he grew up, before making it in music and settling in the United States (he now lives in Beacon). Butler loves to push the paint around, while crafting representational images (all the work in this show are portraits) that, up-close, are juicy and smooshy.
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