Jacks Hat. Acrylic pop art painting
This painting references Jack Dennis McVitie, more commonly known as ‘Jack the Hat’, an English criminal based in London during the 1950s and 1960s who was murdered by the Kray twins, a crime which eventually triggered their downfall and imprisonment.
Undressing from her lingerie
A glamorous woman undresses from the remaining items of her lingerie and is framed as if stepping out from the barrel of a gun.
The imagery attempts to capture the intrigue and danger of the criminal underworld of vice, extortion and murder.
*Artist Doug Kemp with Jacks Hat Painting
The shape of a man as an abstract geometric form
However, the bold colours, particularly those of the background pattern, are in stark juxtaposition to the grime of Soho and the East End of the time yet reflect hope and overall style of the period.
The left of the painting initially started with the concept of a realistic male figure running from left to right but developed into an abstract geometric form and can still be interpreted as a running figure either carrying the gangsters’ infamous Fedora hat or the hat actually being a part of the figure’s anatomy.
Artist Interview On Jacks Hat Canvas Painting
Doug and his son Luke discuss the Jacks Hat painting in this artist interview.
