Matthew Hansel's Morbid Delectatio: Celebrating Hidden Demons

Matthew Hansel's project 'Morbid Delectatio' explores the grotesque and contradictory aspects of human nature through paintings that blend Northern Renaissance and Norman Rockwell styles. His work features monsters, demons, and Boschian creatures, but with a celebratory tone rather than moroseness. Hansel uses symbols like cheese and fruit to represent the 'gruesome delight'—things that repel and attract simultaneously. The grotesques in his paintings draw from the history of grotesques, originating from the 15th-century rediscovery of Nero's Domus Aurea in Rome, which influenced artists like Bosch and Bruegel. Hansel's human figures are inspired by nudist colony advertisements from the 1960s and 1970s, chosen for their historical yet relatable quality. He believes humor is essential to art, stating 'Humor + Pathos + Virtuosity = Good Art.' His painting 'Dancing on the Toes of Our Shadows' depicts himself and his wife imagined decades older, dancing on a table. The article was first published in Hi-Fructose Issue 70.