Christopher Duke was born in 1961 during the middle of the craze of the civil rights movement. He was only seven years old when his dad came home from work and took him outside for some reason and brought him into the middle of the Louisville Riots after MLK had been assasinated.  His dad brought Duke in his arms among a crowd of people that were fighting blacks against whites and the watched as the national guard marched in and rolled in on trucks. To suppress the riots.  DUKE was out there to witness the entire riot.  Duke was changed forever.  Duke has told me his first thought when he saw all this going on was if this is hate then I want nothing to do with it.

Now imagine that this is Duke’s first clear full memory of his childhood and I do believe that it has everything to do with the way that he paints in present day because that moment of his first memory was so dense with emotion and energy and angst, and everything we have a hard time putting into words….  It’s almost like it started him off in this world with a way of perceiving the world around him in fuller more vivid spectrum

Of emotion than most of us will ever experience.

And because he saw at such an early age men breaking each other violently.  It hurt him at age 7 in a way that it broke him inside and made long to teach people how to love and understand each other.

Imagine this is his very first clear childhood memory.  Now look at the way DUKE paints.

Isn’t every painting of his like a freeze frame moment in time?  Do you feel like each of his scenes … like you could step inside of them and walk around for awhile?  He paints the way he remembers his first childhood memory.  With vivid emotion, each scene is packed with all of your six senses being engaged.  You can hear the people talking to each other in his club scenes, you can hear the wind in the trees the rain on the streets the way he remembers his first childhood memory.  :-).

Duke doesn’t paint paintings.  DUKE paints Experiences.  Full and dense with emotion, optimism, sentimentality , and so much more.

This is why our clients never ever tire of seeing his work on their walls and say they are best paintings they have ever owned.  They are not just something pretty or interesting on your walls.  They are stories you feel affinity with. They bring delight and wonder from house guests you entertain.  But most of all Dukes paintings feel alive and they bring wonderful energy in any room you hang them in.  Probably because they were painted by a man whose soul purpose in this world has been the longing to bring love and understanding ; optimism and encouragement to as many people as he can reach.  And if you’re reading this now.  I hope Duke has reached you too.

To know Duke is to love him.   To see Duke’s paintings is to love his art.