.jpg?w=1)
拍品专文
"IT’S A HISTORY OF MYSELF. EVERYTHING FROM WHERE I’VE TRAVELLED, THE BOOKS I’VE READ AND THE MOVIES I’VE SEEN. STILL, I DON’T HAVE THE ANSWER, AND I’M ALWAYS LOOKING FOR IT. ‘WHO AM I? WHY AM I DOING THIS?"
Part of his celebrated Wannabies series, MADSAKI's American Gothic 2, 2015, is an unconventional and witty take on Grant Wood's iconic painting American Gothic, 1930, the highly detailed, Depression-era portrait of two farmers standing in front of a cottage. Wood was drawn to the white cottage's seemingly incongruous Gothic-style window while driving through Iowa. The detail rooted into his mind, and once home, he painted the house from a sketch he had made; the 'farmers' were the artist's dentist and his sister. Although derided for its supposed satire of provincial America, the painting was an instant hit, seen as a celebration of regional diversity and heartland strength. For his version of American Gothic, MADSAKI used an aerosol can and many of the painting's details have been simplified and blurred out. The window's identifiable tracery here is rendered as a rounded cruciform, while the farmers' faces are reduced to two flat orbs; from their eyes black tears fall, the artist's signature 'drips' (MADSAKI interviewed in The Nation, May 13, 2018). For the Wannabies, MADSAKI's trawls art history, reinterpreting past works 'as slang' to critique and question value systems inherent to the art market (MADSAKI interviewed in The Nation, May 13, 2018). The series grew out of an interest in universal communication, a theme he previously explored in his Text paintings: 'Ok, so I had to figure out what the painting version of the text pieces was. Say like the Holy Fucking Shit piece. That is an everyday phrase we use. It is a part of society and culture. So, what is the equal to that in painting? A phrase we all use is the same as the painting that we all know. So "Fuck You" and Matisse is the same thing. Everybody knows Matisse and everybody knows "Fuck You"; it's on the same level. Then I figured out a way to paint the images with a similar attitude and humour that the text paintings had' (MADSAKI interviewed by J. Garfield, Juztapoz, November 7, 2016). For these works, MADSAKI has looked to an array of artists including Picasso, Delacroix and da Vinci, among others, but he only ever makes copies of well-known works, ensuring that his canvases remain exactly proportional to the original. Indeed, part of the uncanny comedy of American Gothic 2 is its familiarity, a couple reimagined but still recognizable, a history brought into the present world.
Part of his celebrated Wannabies series, MADSAKI's American Gothic 2, 2015, is an unconventional and witty take on Grant Wood's iconic painting American Gothic, 1930, the highly detailed, Depression-era portrait of two farmers standing in front of a cottage. Wood was drawn to the white cottage's seemingly incongruous Gothic-style window while driving through Iowa. The detail rooted into his mind, and once home, he painted the house from a sketch he had made; the 'farmers' were the artist's dentist and his sister. Although derided for its supposed satire of provincial America, the painting was an instant hit, seen as a celebration of regional diversity and heartland strength. For his version of American Gothic, MADSAKI used an aerosol can and many of the painting's details have been simplified and blurred out. The window's identifiable tracery here is rendered as a rounded cruciform, while the farmers' faces are reduced to two flat orbs; from their eyes black tears fall, the artist's signature 'drips' (MADSAKI interviewed in The Nation, May 13, 2018). For the Wannabies, MADSAKI's trawls art history, reinterpreting past works 'as slang' to critique and question value systems inherent to the art market (MADSAKI interviewed in The Nation, May 13, 2018). The series grew out of an interest in universal communication, a theme he previously explored in his Text paintings: 'Ok, so I had to figure out what the painting version of the text pieces was. Say like the Holy Fucking Shit piece. That is an everyday phrase we use. It is a part of society and culture. So, what is the equal to that in painting? A phrase we all use is the same as the painting that we all know. So "Fuck You" and Matisse is the same thing. Everybody knows Matisse and everybody knows "Fuck You"; it's on the same level. Then I figured out a way to paint the images with a similar attitude and humour that the text paintings had' (MADSAKI interviewed by J. Garfield, Juztapoz, November 7, 2016). For these works, MADSAKI has looked to an array of artists including Picasso, Delacroix and da Vinci, among others, but he only ever makes copies of well-known works, ensuring that his canvases remain exactly proportional to the original. Indeed, part of the uncanny comedy of American Gothic 2 is its familiarity, a couple reimagined but still recognizable, a history brought into the present world.