Painting the figure

4 Apr-24 Apr 2021

Overview

Following on from the exhibition ‘The Figure in Contemporary Art’ in 2017, Gallery Rosenfeld is opening ‘Painting the Figure’ which will feature works by 8 artists hailing from 8 different countries. Each artist has, for very different reasons, made the figure the major protagonist in their works. The history of western art is based on ‘humanism’ and thus portraying the figure has been a con- tinuum throughout the centuries and artists have continually found new ways of looking at the figure and thereby talking about the human condition. Our epoch is naturally no different and after many years when both ‘painting” and ‘figuration’ were outside the art world debate, both have recently, once more, assumed a role of protagonist in the contemporary art discorse. All of the 8 painters included in the exhibition have found a particular way to paint the figure without falling back on typically ‘realistic’ tropes.