Oil on Canvas – 2013 – 2014
Mannerist and Rococo paintings
A series of paintings reinterpreting some of the famous artworks of Mannerism and Rococo develop that energy associated with an emphasis on the strange, the bizarre and the subtle. The artist works with a specific medium, and takes as his themes what one might call the clichés associated with the terms “oil on canvas” and “Old Master’s painting”.
Still life, Arcimboldo – 2014, 70 x 95 cm, oil and epoxy varnish on canvas.
The artist was inspired by the orbs of oil that cling to the surface of water. He composed these blots on the authentic format of the model of the Old Master in question, e.g. The Visit of Venus to Vulcan by Francois Boucher, 125 x 95 cm, as if it had genuinely been dispersed over the format. Each of the concentrated orbs seems to compress its surroundings and draw them into itself. The base of the painting is really supposed to be the colour of the base, in this case the gesso of the canvas, i.e. white.
Four Year Period, Arcimboldo, 77 x 95 cm, oil and epoxy varnish on canvas.
And then in each of the orbs the artist has pictorially indicated or traced the exact location of the model localised by the blot. This abstract doughy record is also a compression of that field represented by the translucent orb of the oil.
The overall impression of the painting should be that, if the viewer knows and remembers what the original model looks like, they should ultimately see the painting in this new way.
Venus Visits Vulcan – Boucher, 2013, 125 x 95 cm, oil and epoxy varnish on canvas.
And in order to fulfil the ethos of “manners”, the artist has brought out the frame of the painting, which is so important for works from this period, directly from a mass of doughy colours, i.e. without a wooden constructional base. This formless frame is meant to appear wild, modernist and formal, in contrast to the sophisticated styles of the model.
Four Year Period, Arcimboldo, 2013,77 x 95 cm, oil and epoxy varnish on canvas.
Venus, Cupid and Satyr, 2014, Bronzino, 90 x 124 cm, oil and epoxy varnish on canvas.
Embarkation on Kytér, Watteau, 2014, 210 x 130 cm, 2015, oil and epoxy varnish on canvas.
Rinaldo cursed by Armida, Tiepollo, 2014, 230 x 220cm, 2015, oil and epoxy varnish on canvas.
Happy lovers, Fragonard, 2013, 210 x 135 cm, acrylic and epoxy on canvas