Overview pics of the show at Stedelijk Museum in Kampen 13 4 2013 till 16 6 2013.
For Arti et Amicitiae, biggest artist club of Amsterdam, I organised a big happening called “Darkness and Obscurity’ in November as part of the yearly cities museumnight. Video registration is online. Click me!
Franciscus & Franciscus are the joined forces of artist painter F. Franciscus ( 1959, Utrecht, the Netherlands) and spous and graphic designer Rienus Gundel Franciscus (1967, Dordrecht, the Netherlands).
Memling (Seligenstadt, ca. 1430-40 –Brugge,1494) was the first painter who used backgroundlandscapes behind his painted models. The portayed were allmost allways depicted holding a small object in their hand. De hands were painted as if they were leaning on the paintings frame. This surreal athmosphere intrigued F. Franciscus. In 2010 he started painting a series of portraits after Memling.
By putting together the raw photografic material shot for this series by Franciscus and the graphic scills of Rienus Gundel Franciscus the first two digital portraits arose. On these are depicted the gentlemen themselves. The backgrounds in these early works are a collage from images taken from the internet.
During a working visit of mr. and mr. Franciscus in New York in February/ March 2012 the idea arose to make these fotographic portaits also as autonome art works. De first one is shot in New York. They portayed a young red headed man, their New York trainee, with as a background the view over the West Village from the window of the Mondriaan loft where the gents stayed for that occasion.
Later on they created a whole series of these digital portraits with the titel Digital Studies after Memling and the series is still growing. Sometimes the backgrounds come from the net but in most cases they are now composed with images from f.e. Berlin, Paris and New York or from beautiful spots in the Netherlands shot by Franciscus & Franciscus themselves.
The combination of “painting” with digital tools, 16th century portraiture and point sharp details result in surreel images. They are hard to date but are breathing a nostalgic sometimes awkward athmosphere.
Click here for the whole series
