Focus on the figure
I visited the contemporary collection of the Denver Art Museum. The collection of art on display centered on an examination of the personal under the title of ‘Focus on the Figure’. The collection explored the idea of the personal through different mediums, including sculpture, painting and photography. There were a multitude of different artists works on display and it was interesting to see how each of them approached the subject. Some of the artists juxtaposed present day with the past (Wes Hempel ’Fatherhood’) while others deconstructed the physical form of the human body down into its parts.
Some artists explored darker issues of racism, hatred and death. Many of the pieces were slightly grotesque and unsettling to look at. I found I had a lot of inner conflict between my perception of the world and the some of the artists’ portrayals. The artwork forced me to view the world slightly differently. I connected with two pieces from the exhibit in particular. Gottfried Helnwein’s ‘Head of a Child’ and Kehinde Wiley’s posing ‘Marriage of a Virgin’.
The subject of Helnwein’s painting is a young girl. The artist has cropped the body of the girl to include only her face, neck and the top of her shoulders. This results in a very detailed portrait of her face. The subject is positioned to the left of centre on the canvas resulting in an asymmetrical visual weight distribution. I thought this added to the drama of the piece, the uneven placement makes the picture more personal and less scientific. Even though the face is magnified several more times than in real life the expression on the girls face is not easily readable. This ambiguity drew me in and from different perspectives I read different feelings: innocence, sadness and an ageless wisdom. The artist choose to light half of the girl’s face and cast the left hand side into shadows. The result is an added gravity to the picture as if there is more to the girl than the viewer can guess. Perhaps behind her blue eyes is a secret. The most striking aspect of the piece is the level of craftsmanship that went into the construction. The attention to detail and color is so immense that it was only when I was standing in front of the painting that I realized it was not a photograph.
The artist Helnwein asserts that what all artists have in common is that “they all managed to continue being a child” (Helnwein exhibit artist statement). I felt that the painting showed the wonder and trust of childhood. It reminded me of how easily children accept situations and the world around them. They come with no expectations or preconceived ideas of how the world should be. It brought to mind the idea I had of the traditional artist: someone who observes and tries to understand the world around them. The piece made me envious for two reasons, one of the pure skill it took Helnwein to create something so breathtaking and two of the clarity of the young girls gaze. She is looking directly at the viewer, with a steady gaze drinking in the scene in front of her without prejudice. I wish that I could view the world with the same eyes.
The second piece that I associated strongly with was Kehinde Wiley’s ‘Marriage of a Virgin’. Like Helnwein piece Kehinde choose to use oil paints on a very large canvas. The subjects of the piece are three young adult males reenacting “a pose from Raphael’s Marriage of the Virgin” (Kehinde exhibit artist statement). Interestingly the subjects of the painting are not models but three African American males he met on the street and took back to his studio to paint. The three young men flipped through art history books and picked a famous painting to recreate (Kehinde exhibit artist statement). They are painted in the modern clothes they are wearing complete with cell phones, oversized belts and baggy clothes. This is juxtaposed with a posed classical marriage scene. The out of context subjects are intriguing and thought provoking. I recognize that the scene is staged but the manner in which Kehinde captured the life of his subjects embodied the painting with a life and meaning beyond that of a production. These are real people lost in a time not their own. ‘Marriage of a Virgin’ startled me with its association to the past while simultaneously presenting a beautiful painting. I felt the artist honored both Raphael with this representation and the young men in his work. While Kehinde undeniably revamped Raphael’s work he kept the feel of importance about the piece. The young men equally are esteemed and though their stances are posed their personality is allowed to seep through in their faces and attitudes. I thought the painting showed that there is a nobleness and greatness in the people around us but that sometimes people need to be taken out of their natural settings for it to be recognized. In the original painting by Raphael the background of the wedding scene is some sort of church yet in this modern remake the background is vivid orange and yellow an allusion to studio lighting. I feel Kehinde kept the background plain to emphasize the subjects more clearly and ensure the focus of the piece is the people and not the setting. On a personal level I loved the piece for its aesthetics and the indirect way the artist approached the subject. He melded what he saw in front of him with what had already been created. It was like looking at a modern scene wearing Kehinde’s glasses.
