Artist : Anne Van Borselen
Genre : Paintings
Period : April 1 till May 30, Everyday, 9.00AM till 9.00PM
Location : East Lobby Lounge, Conrad Bali Resort & Spa,
Jl. Pratama 168, Tanjung Benoa, Tel: 778788
Around the mid-1970’s many western artists began copying,
appropriating and simulating ‘fine’ art images
from mass culture. Interestingly, they did not copy the original
painting but the readily available de-sanitized mass-reproductions
of the painting. The basing of images on existing popular
sources was not new. Precedents can be found throughout the
history of western art. For example, Manet’s ‘Dejeuner
Sur L’Herbe’ was based on a reproduction of Raphael’s
‘Judgment of Paris’. This style of art was labeled
‘Art about Art’, or ‘Art Appropriation’,
and its origins are assumed to have been in the literary discipline
of Semiotics and Pop Art. ‘Art about Art’ was
concerned with the depiction of images, genres and painting
techniques from the history of western art relocated into
a new setting, and thus a new interpretation. The art generally
involved the recognition of specific and familiar images from
the history of art, and their inherent and established meaning,
which could ‘signify’, or ‘deliver’,
a subliminal message. The ‘meaning’ could simply
be the ‘style’ in-which the re-located image in
its new environment was to be recognized, thus establishing
a ‘mood’ or ‘point-of-view’, to major
shifts in appreciation of the re-interpreted image as a new
artistic, cultural or political statement.
In her exhibition, ‘Beautiful People’, Indonesian
artist Anne Van Borselen incorporates many genres from the
history of western art to create an impressive collection
of ‘signified’ works that have resonance to the
western eye. Anne was born in 1937 in Surabaya. In the 1960’s
she studied at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and Rotterdam,
The Netherlands. Coming from such a background it is not surprising
that Anne has a fine appreciation for the history of western
art, but, she is able to combine this knowledge with a fresh
contemporary outlook. Anne displays a high-level of execution
and a confident aesthetic. She paints directly onto canvas
or rice-paper panels, using a mixed technique of acrylics,
gouache, oil or ink. She says of her work: “I enter
into a sort of trance that gives me the feeling that my work
is being guided by a cosmic force. In-the-end, the work itself
takes over and you don’t even know you are working”.
In this fine body of work, Anne’s art has been guided
by the spirit of Rembrandt, Michelangelo and even the anonymous
artists of the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
The painting ‘Dear Uncle Caine’ recalls the grandeur
of a Rembrandt portrait. Anne’s uncle is placed in a
similar Rembrandt pose, and detailed brushwork has been applied
to bring out the character of her subject’s face. However,
Anne discards Rembrandt’s brown and golden tones for
a more fashionable tonal range of grey and pale blue, applied
with abandonment to the abstracted background and suggested
upper-torso of the man. The ‘mood’ or ‘genre’
of the piece is quickly established, but this merely creates
a framework in-which we can admire Anne’s superlative
brushwork. All-the-same, the ‘significance’ of
the work cannot be ignored, which suggests the on-going prominence
of the patriarchal figure in contemporary life.
Appearing as a page from one of Michelangelo’s sketch-books,
the painting ‘Under a Golden Sky’, depicts arbitrarily
placed, finely-rendered drawings, in a murky brown, of feet,
hands and faces, placed against a golden textured background.
The ‘key’ to this painting, though, is that it
is created on a large rice-paper Oriental-type scroll. A scroll
immediately ‘signifies’ something that has to
be unraveled and deciphered. And, so, as we ‘decode’
the painting, a subtle narrative emerges dealing with the
anointment of Christ’s feet by Mary Magdalene and the
act of Holy Communion. The motif of the work has been achieved
through the implied religious ‘significance’ of
Michelangelo’s humanistic approach to spirituality,
and the glowing background that suggests a weathered parchment.
Finally, the canvas ‘Between Seeing and Saying’,
recalls the exuberant children depicted in the political art
of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. In the foreground a group
of smiling and happy children look towards a new future, yet,
subtly, in the background, can be found scratches of graffiti
depicting children playing with a man wearing an Imperial
crown. The dichotomy between past and present, and the implied
failure of the Cultural Revolution, is abundantly clear. This
is an intelligent work that combines two powerful ‘signifiers’
to create an impressive political icon.
As Anne’s exhibition continues she also presents similar
pieces that utilize the ‘significance’ and ‘genres’
of the work of Leonardo da Vinci, Degas and the art of Andy
Warhol. It is a bold and provocative exhibition that raises
serious questions about the transformation of an image and
its meaning, and the concepts of originality and authenticity,
in ways that display the lasting inspiration of the Pop Art
movement.
