Where Is the Madness You Promised Me

PEEKSKILL, NY—Hudson Valley MOCA is pleased to announce Where is the Madness You Promised Me: Dystopian Paintings from the Marc & Livia Straus Family Collection, an exhibition of contemporary paintings on view February 16–April 21, 2019. In 1796, French artist Hubert Robert (1733-1808), known for his prolific rendering of ancient ruins, painted Imaginary View of the Grande Gallery in the Louvre in Ruins, which portrayed the halls of the famous institution reduced to rubble. Only the Apollo Belvedere of classical antiquity remains, and below him, an artist sketches the wreckage. By projecting the fate of civilizations past onto a beacon of imperial and cultural power, Robert introduced a potentially prescient image that begged the question: When order descends into chaos, what rushes in behind it? Where is the Madness You Promised Me "Where is the Madness You Promised Me" brings together a selection of international contemporary painting that goes beyond the typical gray, post-apocalyptic landscape. Inspired by personal experience and real-life observations, the works in this exhibition imagine potential dire futures while remaining firmly rooted in present fears and anxieties.