Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Portraits of Renaissance Twins by Mary Waters

Mary Waters' portraits of Renaissance identical twins are intriguing, almost haunting. It is said that during the Renaissance, twins were thought to be the product of sexual promiscuity and therefore evil (The Shining anyone?). Most likely, we don't see portraits of twins because they could not survive rudimentary birth. Waters clearly prefers working in Romanticism and Renaissance styles and mediums; acrylic, tempera, alkyd, and oil painted with a satiny sheen. However, she is set apart from the masters who inspire her.

Mary Waters’ portraits of Renaissance identical twins are intriguing, almost haunting. It is said that during the Renaissance, twins were thought to be the product of sexual promiscuity and therefore evil (The Shining anyone?). Most likely, we don’t see portraits of twins because they could not survive rudimentary birth. Waters clearly prefers working in Romanticism and Renaissance styles and mediums; acrylic, tempera, alkyd, and oil painted with a satiny sheen. However, she is set apart from the masters who inspire her. Similar to Diane Arbus’ work, there is some irony in Waters’ imagery which questions identity. If you had your portrait painted in the 15th century, it was to preserve your features for future generations. Patrons even believed a painting could communicate one’s inner soul. Dressed exactly alike and in the same pose, these fictional twins are an anomaly of their time.

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
Philadelphia-born artist Lisa Yuskavage has become known for her fantasized images of women in stages of undress, and not without controversy. Scantily clad, her subjects' sexuality plays an important role in her art where men have largely been ignored. In her new series of paintings and pastels, currently on view at David Zwirner Gallery in New York alongside Yayoi Kusama (covered here), Yuskavage finally tackles the opposite sex. Called "Hippies," her male and female cast is only loosely inspired by the free-spirited sub-culture. Yuskavage's also possess an otherworldly feel with seductive and religious undertones.
It has been said that the Renaissance witnessed the rediscovery of the individual and is considered the first great age of portraiture. Inspired by master artists like Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, and Hans Holbein, Moscow based photographer Alexei Sovertkov creates magnificent portrayals of the people around him. In his series titled "Digiclassicism", Sovertkov presents himself and his close friends in digital portraits that remix historical depictions.
When we visited Karen Hsiao and Dan Quintana in their Los Angeles studio last month, they were hard at work on their collaborative show, “Perverse Foil”. It is a project that have been brainstorming about since 2009. On Saturday, they finally celebrated the opening at Marcas Contemporary Art in Santa Ana. At the event, attendees were treated to a live reenactment of their collaboration through a photoshoot by Hsiao in front of a backdrop by Quintana. She compliments Quintana’s surreal world with new black and white photographs and notably, her first figurative oil paintings and graphite.
Christian Rex van Minnen's paintings (featured in HF Vol. 25) are painstakingly laborious. The artist uses the techniques of the Northern Renaissance masters to paint tripped-out portraits and still lifes where his subjects devolve into bulbous, tumor-like lumps of flesh and organic matter. While Van Minnen's work is commonly interpreted as being about deformity, when we visited the artist's studio in Brooklyn a few weeks ago, he discussed the conceptual underpinnings of his creative process. Take a look at our photos from Van Minnen's studio after the jump.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List