Alex Foxton
British, 1980- (active France)

Cowboy Study (Prussian Blue), 2022
oil on canvas

SBMA, gift of anonymous donor
2023.43



Alex Foxton, 2020

“I like to start with recognizable male archetypes, so I can mess them up. Cowboys are recognizable to everyone, to the point of kitch, but they have quite negative associations: emotional withdrawal, loneliness, machismo. In trying to complicate this image I am trying to ask the question, what effect does this guy have on us?

I try for a maximum of ambiguity, so the painting is open enough to connect with. I don’t want to tear down masculinity so much as open it up. I looked at a lot of Gauguin and Emile Bernard for their treatment of space and flatness, and the color was also influenced by them, particularly Bernard’s Le Pardon.” - Alex Foxton

His paintings are raw and crude, or as he describes them “subversive”. And always of men, often semi-nude or in a state of undress. “I’m sure I could paint other things, like a… dog,” he says laughing, “but I just don’t want to.” - Alex Foxton

COMMENTS

Alex Foxton has been painting for as long as he's been making clothes, but it wasn't until a few years ago that he decided to leave behind the cutting table for the canvas full-time. After graduating from Central Saint Martins with a degree in fashion design, Foxton honed his understanding of form and function with successful stints at Louis Vuitton, Bottega Veneta, and Galliano's Maison Margiela. The self-taught artist wields his paintbrush with the same precision as a seamster with his needle, challenging traditional notions of masculinity with his stylistic choices: using "effeminate" colors like bright pinks and yellows as well as cinching, stretching or elongating body parts. Foxton's subjects are like cherubic rebels of a paradise lost; from a tender series of semi-nude portraits inspired by Stanley Stellar's photographs of New York's gay piers to a lavender-hued Saint Sebastian, myth and history merge in the images he creates.
May 31, 2024
https://officemagazine.net/office-people-alex-foxton

SBMA CURATORIAL LABELS

Foxton’s queers icons of raw masculinity such as sailors in uniform, athletes posing, toreadors, and cowboys. While mysterious and powerful with his eyes hidden by a cowboy hat, this man wears a fluttering green scarf and his fingers are dramatically curled, as if grasping an unseen cigarette. Another cowboy is upside-down and wears exaggerated high-heeled boots. The face mimics a Pablo Picasso with a mixture of a straight-on and profile view. After a successful career in fashion design, Foxton turned to painting. He is British but lives in Paris.

- Friends and Lovers, 2024