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The Second Hand

Maker Tom LaDuke (b. 1963, Holyoke, Massachusetts)

Date2014

MediumAcrylic on canvas over panel

Dimensions20 in. x 15 in. (50.8 cm x 38.1 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase with funds provided by Wellesley College Friends of Art

Object number2015.16

Status

Not on view

RightsCopyright is retained in accordance with U.S. Copyright laws

Photo creditDavis Museum at Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA

More Information

Object Label

Best known for meticulously crafted paintings that layer art historical references with real-world images and abstract elements, LaDuke uses computer graphics software to combine sources and compose works.

Here, vivid daubs, stripes, and dots of acrylic paint layer over machine parts and architectural volumes from the artist’s studio, and obscure a delicately airbrushed rendering of Hans Memling’s masterpiece, Allegory of Chastity from 1475 (in the collection of The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia). About the “layers of information that coalesce on the surface” of his paintings, LaDuke says “I’m always trying to understand the puzzle of reality. I use bits of reality, known things, or conventions of painting . . . to give me a doorway to stand in and a direction to look.”