How Was Rococo Art About the Indulgence of Upper Class
Q+Fine art: Anne von Freyburg Translates Rococo-Era Luxury Into Class-Witting Material Paintings
For artist Anne von Freyburg, more is decidedly more. The London-based Dutch Anne von Freyburg's "textile paintings" revive the hedonistic pleasures of 18th century Rococo art with sumptuous colors, silky fabrics, and an embarrassment of sequins.
With a groundwork in way pattern, von Freyburg translates the pastel colors and lighthearted eroticisms of Rococo into dimensional works she crafts from contemporary style fabrics. Her work comments on the sensual frivolities of the upper classes by mimicking the colors and compositions of works past French artists like Boucher and Fragonard. Blending fantasy and reality, the Rococo artists painted scenes of everyday life for the uber-wealthy, who are shown cavorting through cotton fiber candy-colored gardens in frilly dresses and powdered wigs.
Here'southward where things get complicated: Though von Freyburg takes pains to translate Rococo's excesses into a new medium, her crafting procedure draws a sharp divide between past and nowadays. "Historically, craft and decoration have been perceived as lesser than the 'intellectual' fine arts," she writes in her artist statement. By using the traditionally feminine art of sewing, von Freyburg "attempts to raise questions about taste, femininity, high and low art, and the constructs of female identity."
While she embraces tactile pleasure, sensuality, and the just plain pretty, von Freyburg is also quick to criticize the worst impulses of the aristocracy. "Besides its visual pleasures, [my work] tin besides be read as a annotate on excessive consumerist's beliefs and self-indulgence," she notes. Rococo ultimately savage out of style due to its tone-deaf hedonism (this was only a few decades before the French Revolution and Robespierre's Reign of Terror), but its celebration of dearest, youth, and beauty lives on in the work of by artists like von Freyburg. Her carefully crafted work suggests that aesthetic dazzler belongs not to perfumed lords, tech moguls, or spoiled socialites, just to anybody.
In Today's Q+Fine art Interview…
Anne von Freyburg discusses the "more than is more" philosophy behind her work, sewing during Ru Paul's Drag Race, and transitioning to a new medium.
Which books, art-related or otherwise, vest on every artist'due south shelf?
AvF: Why Are There No Cracking Female Artists? by Linda Nochlin, The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf, The Artist'due south Way by Julia Cameron, Ways of Seeing past John Berger, Dazzler: (Documents of Contemporary Art), edited by Dave Beech.
What are you lot trying to limited with your art?
AvF: More is more.
Exercise you adopt New York- or Chicago-style pizza?
AvF: I alive in London, and then I never tried any of those styles, just I take heard from American friends that New York pizza is the best.
Would you piece of work for costless in commutation for exposure?
AvF: 1 never knows if the work that is produced for an exhibition is going to sell or what commercially comes out of it, then in that manner, yes, but I wouldn't engage in a show without potential or that I take to pay for.
What is your favorite guilty pleasure?
AvF: At the moment it is watching Ru Paul's Drag Race while sewing my artwork and pasta carbonara.
What practise you consider your greatest artistic achievement?
AvF: Too getting my piece of work exhibited, I would say deciding to make my mixed-media paintings predominantly out of fabric.
What is the best advice yous've ever received?
AvF: Exaggerate your way and be persistent.
What is ane thing y'all would similar to modify about the art world?
AvF: Being less white male dominated.
Would y'all rather be a historically significant or commercially successful artist?
AvF: Commercially successful, because you volition never know in this life if your art is going to exist historically significant一time will tell. I would rather accept the opportunity to develop my work and for that one needs financial resources. It doesn't exclude one another.
What are you listening to in the studio right now?
AvF: I am lucky that my husband─Mytron─is an electronic music producer and a DJ; therefore I ever accept access to his amazing eclectic electronic mixes.
How has the coronavirus pandemic afflicted your practice?
AvF: Too all the exhibitions beingness postponed, it also had positive sides. I don't know if this was considering of the pandemic or if it was a coincidence. All of a sudden, I had all this fourth dimension at dwelling house where I could rethink my practice, which gave me the urge to button my work in directions that I was a bit hesitant about and focus on the textile side of my work. This resulted in colorful, vibrant, mitt-sewn cloth collages, which offered me a more playful mode of making. Because of the lack of physical exposure, I started spending more than time in, connecting with online art magazines and blogs that provided me with some amazing interviews.
What are you lot working on that you're excited about right now?
AvF: I am very excited that I will accept part in Cob. X PLOP Residency in London this winter, where I volition develop some more sculptural wall pieces. The idea of making my material paintings becoming sculptural is something that I wanted to explore for a while, and so I am actually thankful that I can work on them in a residency with cracking mentoring and artists.
Anne von Freyburg: Website | Instagram | Facebook
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. All photos published with permission of the creative person.
Desire to be featured in Q+Art? Email editor@notrealart.com with a brusque introduction and a link to your online portfolio or three images of your work.
Morgan Laurens
Morgan Laurens is an arts writer who lives in the Midwest and enjoys saying "excuse me" when no actual pardon is needed. She is the founder of So Long See You Tomorrow, an organisation that helps artists and creative entrepreneurs write about their piece of work, craft a story, and get dorsum in the studio. Learn more at: https://solongseeyoutomorrow.com
Source: https://notrealart.com/fiber-artist-anne-von-freyburg-rococo-textile-paintings/