The Myth of Man

The Myth of Man is a collection of new paintings by the London-based artist Daniel Hosego, exploring the contemporary battle for masculinity through a distinctive blend of the classical and the contemporary.

Daniel Hosego’s paintings plunder the traditions of art history as a means of exploring the contemporary culture wars. His scenes echo Renaissance and Neoclassical prints but with an intricately drawn Pop Art aesthetic, sprinkled throughout with the mundane ephemera of 21st century life: smart phones, washing machines, electric razors… Questioning cultural ideals that have endured for centuries, Daniel’s paintings use classical narratives and motifs as vehicles to probe contemporary debates about culture and identity.

As the title suggests, The Myth of Man is firmly focused on the question of contemporary masculinity, and stereotypical tropes appear frequently in both classical and contemporary form. Some are as jokes, of fighting boyish centaurs brandishing measuring tapes as weapons, suggesting how traditional measures of masculinity are so easily belittled and infantilised. A large Dicktych presents a centaur sporting a six pack and weights like a model macho, towering over a pair of little fauns being groomed by alpha male content via their laptops, arranged like a cock and balls. The legendary centaur Chiron, teacher of Hercules and Achilles, appears morphed into the influencer and misogynist Andrew Tate. Body toned, wearing shades, smoking a cigar, he seems a hero designed specifically to play on the insecurities and fragilities of the male gaze.

Tate appears again as teacher in the most monumental painting in the show, Machomarchy. This describes a pitched battle for the soul of masculinity in allusion to the Centauromachy, the legendary battle between Lapiths and Centaurs for civilisation and order over barbarism and chaos depicted on the south side of the Parthenon. Swords and clubs, dumbbells and muscle builder pills, beer cans, baseball caps, and Jordan Peterson brandishing a dildo: all litter the scene of an epic conflict between ideals of manliness. Myth here is shown as a means of defining an ideal and enforcing its authority, and thus something to be fought over.

The Medusa appears frequently, much as she does throughout art history, as a figure that imperils fragile masculinity and castigates the male gaze. In one of the largest works, a confident Medusa appears in a classical temple whose walls are adorned with OnlyFans icons. She is surrounded by male viewers, many shielding themselves with their phones, as if the screen were the contemporary equivalent of the mirror of Perseus allowing them to voyeurise with impunity. Others are repelled but unable to look away from a woman exploiting the male gaze through the sight of her body, an act that in turn reinforces toxic male attitudes in a constant feedback loop.

The snakes of Medusa’s hair appear in several works, often in reference to female hair and shaving as compliance to traditional ideas of feminine beauty. In one, the mythical quest of Perseus is to shave Andromeda’s serpents. In another a man is floored in horror of female armpit snakes. The female figure, so often depicted nude in classical art as a form of refined titillation, appears here dressed in athletic sportswear as a form of reclaiming body autonomy. Another classical trope, of the nymph by water, is adapted to a woman standing next to a washing machine. In a folding diptych, Hercules brings a basket of washing back to his wife, underlining both how women have been traditionally tied to the domestic sphere and the unending nature of their labours. The edifice of myth has held these standards for centuries: Daniel Hosego’s work seeks to bring them up to date.