SMITH TI-HO

 

Smith Ti-Ho

 

Is it mad to think of oneself as “the last human being?” When with gleeful blasphemy you deliberately create misfortune, it might be a comfort to consider oneself “the last.”

 

Smith Ti-Ho admittedly reads too much Nietzsche. His gloomy visions are reminiscent of Boileau, Musil and early Roustard (with whom he studied at the Université des Trois-Montagnes). Before he became a painter, he was a philosophy student, which partially explains both his temperament and his choices of imagery. He was briefly associated with the Mouvement Scolaire and showed an unusual talent for writing manifestos. 

 

Saint Sébastien, (or San Sebastián) became an early motif for Ti-Ho, probably because of his penchant for self-pity. It took years before he made the subject truly his own. His working process includes an unfathomable act of cruelty where he insists his models impale themselves with real arrows.

 

With or without his consent, Smith Ti-Ho is considered one of today’s most important Catholic artists.