Emma Frank

Since the dawn of second-wave feminism in the early 1960s, women in Western society have been encouraged to break free from a socially limiting structure. The slogan "The Personal is Political '' erupted a paradigm shift in women. Art reflected this multiplicity: Just as there were and are many feminisms, there were and are many branches of feminist art.

Conversely, the concept of hegemonic masculinity- initially introduced by R.W. Connell- continues to isolate the men it promises to empower. It claims men should be strong, assert dominance, and avoid emotional vulnerability to legitimize themselves. Apart from being anxiety-provoking, this mold is becoming dangerous. Men like Fleck in the film Joker are being abandoned by society because they no longer know what it means to be a man- but that's fiction. The reality is that every mass shooter since 1982- with the exception of three-has been male.

In his charcoal drawings, Elliot Purse satirizes the notion of the hegemonic man. The subjects are musclemen-some easily recognizable. Hulk Hogan explodes in what seems to be a "mega-nut" orgasm as he conquers an opponent. The aptly titled "Macho Man" flexes his bulbous biceps while the imminent blow of a folding chair idles fractions of seconds behind his head. Like so many others, Purse grew up admiring strongmen alongside his father: gaudy male pro-wrestlers, sinewy, and chiseled bodybuilders. WWE is a long-standing multi-billion-dollar media powerhouse. Eleven million fans a week gather to watch greasy, roid-raged Napoleons act out rivalries. Although these gladiator scenes are scripted, accidents happen all the time- some ending in serious injury or even death. The crowd often seems to abandon any awareness that people inhabit these chiseled characters. In a way, they are empty husks, yet they are somehow still heroes to millions of Americans. WWE diehards are like the Juggalos of wrestling. The bulk of them? You guessed it: men. Every aspect of this subculture is excessive. The athletes put their lives at risk solely for entertainment's sake. A staggering number of them meet their end by drug overdose or suicide. Bodybuilders are even more extreme than WWE stars in some ways; the human body is not designed to get that big without steroids.

Purse's work represents the powerful serendipity of the grotesque, absurd, and satirical rooted in classical figurative technical ability. He does this while maintaining sensitivity in the variation of rendering techniques from crude to hyper-realistic. An impressive example of this is our friend "Macho Man"; Purse renders his bicep to the edge of bursting, yet his face has a garish cartoon expression. This technique takes them beyond the inherent beauty of photorealistic brags into the realm of the contemporary male psyche. Charcoal, pastel, and gouache are used to render each work creating a surface that feels soft, delicately delineated, and physically vulnerable. This dazzling array of characters are often depicted partially or with truncated limbs, reminiscent of his experience viewing Greco-Roman statuary. By scaling up their bodies to monumental proportions, their visual weight imposes a dark presence of theatrical excess, performed power, and testosterone overload. The process itself is compulsive at times. Purse gets lost in a rabbit hole of internet imagery before he even begins the drawing. With charcoal in hand, he intuitively draws and steps back — meticulous areas of drawing like the steel clenched butt cheeks of Flag express the peak of excess. The divots in the skin are pinched between slabs of canyon-like thighs, pulling so much emphasis to the center that appears as if the viewer has boarded a spaceship entering warp speed.

A man who feels lost but wishes to preserve his fully masculine self has only two choices: withdrawal or rage" (Michael Ian Black). Boys are lost, broken, and lack the language to communicate their feelings. Hegemonic masculinity begins the conversation, but even in its earliest form has only been a notion since the 1980s. Such a complicated issue requires even more nuanced analysis to unpack.