This oil painting represents both the carefree nature of youth as well as its corruption by those seeking to implement a fascist agenda. The image of the titular boy is taken from Leni Riefenstahl's notorious Nazi propaganda film ‘Triumph of the Will’. I also wanted to subvert a once widely used artistic trope, which was to paint a figure looking towards the light/sun/holy apparition, to symbolically represent viewing the future. I also acknowledge a debt to Goya's allegorical painting: 'The Colossus'.
Oil on MDF
103 x 122 x 5 cm (this painting is framed)
2017