Oil on canvas
54 by 62 inches (approx)
The "dancers" here are exhausted competitors. Everyone is crammed into a small space, all over each other to win, and unable to connect.
I explored an area of anti-aesthetics borrowing from horror and comedy for a few years around the time this painting was made, inspired by the Troma movies I grew up watching in the 80s and early 90s.
The title Thirst is taken from the UK band Citizen Fish's 1996 album of the same name.
Henri Matisse
Dance 1, 1909