- Venue
- Harrington Mill Studios
- Starts
- Saturday, October 15, 2016
- Ends
- Sunday, October 30, 2016
- Address
- Leopold Street Long Eaton Nottingham NG10 4QE
- Location
- East Midlands
- Organiser
- Harrington Mill Studios
Visitors can see SEARCHING THE UNKNOWN MASTERPIECE over the HMS Open Studio weekend Saturday October 29th from 11am – 4pm
Sunday October 30th from 11am – 4pm
“This series of works The Unknown Masterpiece refers to and originates from the book of the same name, Honoré de Balzac’s The Unknown Masterpiece (1831). The book describes an encounter between fictional characters – artists, Frenhofer and Porbus (based on real-life court painter Franz Pourbus) and real life, Nicolas Poussin. Poussin visits distinguished painter, Porbus in his studio and is admitted by painter, Frenhofer. In his quest for absolute beauty, the old painter, Frenhofer, attempts to create the absolute masterpiece and goes on “improving” his painting for ten years, ending up to an illegible composition thus destroying his life’s work.
In my series of works The Unknown masterpiece, famous portraits of women, having earned a place in the history of art for their virtuosity in painting, are deconstructed and offer an initial “canvas” that is reconverted and recreated by pieces of famous portraits of men. It constitutes a sharp comment on the position of women in society and the “male” roles they have to adopt. The picture created in the end is a nightmare image, a “hermaphrodite”, a “Frankenstein” monster composed by “perfect” integral parts.”
Artemis Potamianou
