Rococo & co was presented in two exhibitions in Budapest, Galeri Ffrindiau (2020) and Berlin, Studio Venerito (2021).
(All pictures have small sizes ranging approx. from 18×24 to 24×30)
“I see everything like this, the surface of things, a sort of mental Braille, I just pass my hand over the surface of things” Andy Warhol (1)
The idea of “Quick Tiepolos” occurred naturally while preparing an exhibition in Budapest in 2018 dedicated to the fetish – exploring the relation of coercion and sensuality. Baroque and Rococo paintings present astonishing mixtures of sexuality and violence. What first started as an exercise about “letting go” the hand by copying quickly pictures of Tiepolo raised further questions about how to relate aesthetically to old Masters. Many represented themes and myths by Old Masters don’t mean much to us any more today. Neglecting their underlying significance is, accordingly, an attempt to maintain a distance to a certain idea of meaning or depth.
“Quick Tiepolos” became the attempt to grasp the composition from the patches of colour as they appeared on the computer-screen, without any preparatory sketch – relying on the “intelligence of the hand”. Fast-drying acrylic forced a stop at the right moment and prevented getting lost in details, leaving it to the eye to “finish” the picture. The small formats, building an ironic contrast to the often huge original frescos highlighted little by little an idea: that the abstraction of patches of color in which details were dissolving enhanced the style – or period – of the original picture even without being able to recognize what it represented.
Finally, from this rather short-sighted perspective, suspended in patches of colors, the main question about what we are seeing remains with us.
The “Quick Tiepolos” appropriations wish to be in line with the Appropriation approaches such as of Sherrie Levine’s or Louise Lawler’s. They match, again, Warhol’s claim : Why should I be original? Why can’t I be non-original? ” (3).
(1) (2)Andy Warhol in Giant Warhol, Phaidon, 2009
Video of the opening of Rococo & co at Galeri Frrindiau Budapest, feb.2020, thanks to Noémi Foriàn Szabo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmzM-NP3oDI&ab_channel=m%C5%B1v%C3%A9szettelefonon