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Red Work 501

Print
2004 (printed)
Artist/Maker

Philipp Dontsov (b.1972) is a graduate of the Mukhina Industrial Art College in Saint Petersburg and uses the materials and technologies of product design and industrial model-making in his paintings, sculptures and installations exploring the interplay of form and light. His Red Works from 2002 are a series of paintings in polymer on aluminium depicting the human body in a photographic idiom - the figures are painted in a hyper-realistic style and the glossy surface of the polymer resembles photographic emulsion. The saturated hues of blue and red are so tonally equivalent that the images seem to shift from positive to negative in changing light or to hover between the two states in a kind of supended animation - perhaps recalling a near-death experience in the artist's youth when he 'died' after a choking accident and was resucitated after thirty minutes. He has gone on to produce some of the series as screen prints - a medium which heightens the images' luminosity and aura of spirituality.


Object details

Category
Object type
TitleRed Work 501 (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Screen print on paper
Brief description
Philip Dontsov. Red Work 501. 2004. Screen print.
Physical description
Rectangular (portrait format) sheet of white paper with square image painted in blue and red depicting a male nude from the waist up
Dimensions
  • Height: 78.8cm
  • Width: 53.9cm
Production typeLimited edition
Marks and inscriptions
(Numbered, inscribed with title (in Russian), signed and dated in pencil below the image.)
Gallery label
Philipp Dontsov’s Red Works depict the artist’s own body in a photographically realistic style. The intense colours have been chosen to create a particular optical effect. The images appear to shift between positive and negative in changing light. The artist may have been inspired by an incident in his youth when he was briefly suspended between life and death. (22/10/2016)
Credit line
Purchased through the Julie and Robert Breckman Print Fund
Subject depicted
Summary
Philipp Dontsov (b.1972) is a graduate of the Mukhina Industrial Art College in Saint Petersburg and uses the materials and technologies of product design and industrial model-making in his paintings, sculptures and installations exploring the interplay of form and light. His Red Works from 2002 are a series of paintings in polymer on aluminium depicting the human body in a photographic idiom - the figures are painted in a hyper-realistic style and the glossy surface of the polymer resembles photographic emulsion. The saturated hues of blue and red are so tonally equivalent that the images seem to shift from positive to negative in changing light or to hover between the two states in a kind of supended animation - perhaps recalling a near-death experience in the artist's youth when he 'died' after a choking accident and was resucitated after thirty minutes. He has gone on to produce some of the series as screen prints - a medium which heightens the images' luminosity and aura of spirituality.
Collection
Accession number
E.362-2005

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
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