Isn't this cool? It's called Portrait of Francesco, Julian and Bruno (1991). What looks like smudged vining charcoal is actually soot from a candle flame used to create this large work on canvas by Jiri Georg Dokoupil (born in Czechoslovakia in 1954).
The artist based this work on a photo of his Swiss art dealer, Bruno Bischofberger, who's flanked by the artists Julian Schnabel (right) and Francesco Clemente. What interests me are the just-rightness of his decisions of what to nail down and what to leave unfinished. The faces are just enough. The portions of painting in the background work as effective bookends, bleeding into the sleeves of the artists. Looks dashed off but everything works - including the missing feet and the space left empty in the foreground. What do you think of it?
He paints, as well, and I found those works equally intriguing, especially the way he plays with scale and perspective. See Galerie Bruno Bischofberger. Here's Haus und Malven, (1999) below. Since it doesn't look like I'm likely to attend the Oscars anytime soon, at least it might it be fun to look forward to saying one day, "Excuse me, I've got to take this call from my Swiss art dealer."
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Soot from a candle flame! What a great touch
ReplyDeleteInteresting that an effect so similar to watercolor could be produced by fire.
ReplyDeleteThanks for you comments, all. This past year there was an interesting exhibit at the museum in my town, Bellevue, featuring an artist Etsuko Ichikawa who creates huge panels of paper "drawn" on using flame and smoke coming from molten glass. You can see her work www.bellevuearts.org/exhibitions/past/etsuko_ichikawa.htm. I don't know how you control the heat so the paper doesn't burn. Hmmm. Keep extinguisher handy, I guess.
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