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Lot Essay
'Despite the variety of Schinwalds individual works, the principle of intervention is consistent: [] objects, bodies and images are made to fit take a bit off here, add something somewhere else. This craft, in German, isnt called sewing or tailoring; literally, it means cutting (Schneiderei), a word that strangely emphasizes trimming and shortening over any constructive aspects. Before the triumph of ready-to-wear, clothing was cut to fit in direct contact with the customers body. Eventually personal trainers and cosmetic surgeons stepped in: they keep the body at a constant size for off-the-rack clothing, or they simply nip, tuck and alter it accordingly. Each of these trades generates prostheses, corsets and artificial joints in order to give bodies a desired form'
(V. Weh, Markus Schinwald, in Frieze 2011, https://frieze-magazin.de/archiv/kritik/markus-schinwald [accessed 10 September 2013]).
Markus Schinwald's Sondra is a compelling rendition of the artists hallmark found Biedermeier portraits, examples of which were shown in the Austrian Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011. Within Schinwald's multifarious oeuvre, which spans from installation and live performance to manipulated engravings and his celebrated oil paintings, he explores the recurring themes of adhesion and prosthesis, highlighting the conflict between a body and its environment, the individual and the object. The dark mysterious interiors and faded grandeur prevalent in Schinwalds art are redolent of the atmosphere of its production: Vienna.
To create his deeply psychological portraits like Sondra, Schinwald bought 19th century portraits at auction which he then gave to a restorer to repair. The artist then added prostheses; small chains that tug on the corner of a woman's mouth, a chin cup attached with wires to the sitter's ears, or as seen in the present work, intersecting wires that strain against the womans pearly skin. The body restrained and confined is not at liberty to determine its own movement. Indeed, in Schinwald's oeuvre the body is often used in conjunction with clothing in order to control bodily function and movement. In an interview Schinwald recalled how the history of clothing is divided into the robe and the scaffolding: the robe mainly has a covering function, and scaffolding an architectonic one... I have always focused on the latter the architecture in clothes' (M. Schinwald, https://www.frieze.com/issue/article/marcus_schinwald [accessed 10 September 2013]).
(V. Weh, Markus Schinwald, in Frieze 2011, https://frieze-magazin.de/archiv/kritik/markus-schinwald [accessed 10 September 2013]).
Markus Schinwald's Sondra is a compelling rendition of the artists hallmark found Biedermeier portraits, examples of which were shown in the Austrian Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011. Within Schinwald's multifarious oeuvre, which spans from installation and live performance to manipulated engravings and his celebrated oil paintings, he explores the recurring themes of adhesion and prosthesis, highlighting the conflict between a body and its environment, the individual and the object. The dark mysterious interiors and faded grandeur prevalent in Schinwalds art are redolent of the atmosphere of its production: Vienna.
To create his deeply psychological portraits like Sondra, Schinwald bought 19th century portraits at auction which he then gave to a restorer to repair. The artist then added prostheses; small chains that tug on the corner of a woman's mouth, a chin cup attached with wires to the sitter's ears, or as seen in the present work, intersecting wires that strain against the womans pearly skin. The body restrained and confined is not at liberty to determine its own movement. Indeed, in Schinwald's oeuvre the body is often used in conjunction with clothing in order to control bodily function and movement. In an interview Schinwald recalled how the history of clothing is divided into the robe and the scaffolding: the robe mainly has a covering function, and scaffolding an architectonic one... I have always focused on the latter the architecture in clothes' (M. Schinwald, https://www.frieze.com/issue/article/marcus_schinwald [accessed 10 September 2013]).