Anne von Freyburg
Anne von Freyburg is an artist, living and working in London. Here she speaks to Lynn Seraina Battaglia via email about her current exhibition, the construction of beauty and her very unique technique…
LSB: Hi Anne, thank you for taking time to 'talk' with me.
You have an exhibition opening (or have one open by the time we publish) at James Freeman Gallery in London, together with Nigel Grimmer. Can you tell me more about how this exhibition came together? Your works in this show are very new works - at least by the standard of Corona and 2020 having been a year where almost no works were experienced by anyone - are these works a new series?
AvF: Of course, it is a pleasure talking with you.
The show and concept is organised by James Freeman and I was asked to exhibit together with Nigel Grimmer.
I have been interested in the Rococo period for a while and I really wanted to make work with that period as a reference. From the beginning of May last year I started doing research on Rococo paintings, especially the work of Francois Boucher and Jean-Honore Fragonard. So yes it is a new series that I have been working on since last September and this is the first time I am showing them.
LSB: Nigel Grimmer's works depict male figures. Yours show women. Yet there is a distinct difference: your women are references to women that have been portrayed by male artists such as Fragonard and Boucher. Is the question of reclaiming the female gaze part of your works?
AvF: I guess in general I want to reclaim the female gaze with my work. One can see these Rococo portrait's as selfies of their time, they all look alike. With these particular pieces I also wanted to address and reclaim the stereotypes of femininity and beauty, which have been seen as women's taste. Yes these paintings were painted by men, but what I find interesting is that women were often their clients and they where hired to paint their portrait by their taste.
The Rococo period has been marginalised by contemporary art because of its visual pleasures, sexuality, frivolity and feminine appearance. Until this day, when there is too much 'feminine' pleasure in an artwork it will be questioned by the art police. Fine art should be liberated from these hierarchies.
Of course Boucher for instance made some problematic work, where women are portrayed as passive objects in a landscape. By enlarging the scale of the original painting and exaggerating its brushstrokes into fluid, swirly and curvy shapes, I hope to lift this passiveness and give it more movement and expression than its reference.
LSB: You are sewing and collaging these paintings in flashy fabrics. Tell me more about your technique.
AvF: After I manipulated the photo reproductions of the Rococo paintings in photoshop I translate them onto the canvas with acrylic inks. The basis of the textile pieces are painted interpretations of the original painting. One can see it as a painted under-layer where I can build onto with a wide range of textiles. I use various fashion fabrics in my work to communicate about modern culture. Next to that I repurpose vintage tapestry wall hangings and furniture fabrics in my paintings as well. The mixture of fabrics I use because of their historical, social background and what they mean today. I collage them together and stitch them by hand on top of the painted canvas.
In my recent paintings I use a quilting. By stitching into the polyester wadding I create a puffy look, with which I want to enhance the bodily and haptic side of the work. The tassel fringes and curtain cords are all painted with acrylics inks and refer to impasto painting and paint dripping off the canvas. I paint with fabrics and materials so to speak. At the same time I like to play with the decorative and seductive side of these materials. Creating a painting made with kitschy fabrics and decorative materials is really empowering to me.
LSB: This is very interesting. I like the nod to the idea of constructed beauty - both in technique as well as ideology. These works inherit a lavishness and a sensuality that almost universally make the viewer understand the concept of their beauty. Can you tell me a bit more about your idea of constructed beauty in these works?
AvF: The work does question constructs of western beauty in an art historical way as well as how femininity and female gender are fabricated. Simone de Beauvoir wrote, 'one is not born a women but rather becomes a women'. The idea that being a women is something we learn to be or is a role that one plays, is something I believe is still part of female culture. Ru Paul said, we are born naked and the rest is drag, which I find a more suited statement in contemporary western society, where one can transform into anything that they like and even turn the stereotypical feminine aesthetic into a performance.
The idea of the Rococo portrait translated into fashion fabrics is a reference to a culture obsessed by image, the body and appearance. I used these portraits because they have something in common with selfies, they all look similar. By giving the work a puffy effect I was thinking about the use of steroids in bodybuilding or cosmetic fillers. Even though the idea behind the work is critical about consumerism and beautification, it can also be read as a celebration of the feminine, dressing up and being who and whatever you would like to be.
LSB: In your works you are also combining the "high art" of painting and the historically seen as lower and more feminine craft of sewing and collaging. Being a female artist, do you feel like there is still a need to fight to establish techniques that have historically been seen as lesser art because it was mostly women doing it?
AvF: Unfortunately yes I do think we still need to fight that, although textiles in contemporary art are becoming more respected as an art form right now. Artists, art mediums and aesthetics that where marginalised for centuries are getting more recognition and that is a wonderful development. With that change, textiles and other forms of craft like ceramics get more attention too, which is great and I hope that this rediscovering of craft is not just a trend. When Phaiden publishes a Vitamine T (threads), one can say textiles are officially excepted as a contemporary art form.
Still, as a female artist working with textiles and using a typical feminine aesthetic, one always needs to explain oneself, which I don't mind because it is important to talk about how western ideas of beauty in art and throughout art history are being constructed.
LSB: Thank you so much for taking time!
