Anton Karstel: Miss Hoffa - SOLD
Karstel, Anton - (b 1968)
Miss Hoffa
Oil on canvas
70,5 x 52 cm
Signed and dated bottom right
Sold - 2016
My initial reaction to an exhibition titled “masterpiece” was to cringe about the presumptuousness of it. Usually masterpieces are identified in a consensus by experts about artists who are preferably dead. We however live in a disenchanted world in which the notion of a “master” seems amusingly anachronistic. We also live in a cynical age that wised up to the way meaning is constructed by discourses. Powerful galleries, wealthy patrons, market speculation, imposing museums, art-historical constructs, influential critics, to name a few, mould the meaning we attribute to art. Historically a “masterpiece” was created by the “master craftsman” to qualify for guild membership. This valorisation of artisanal skill has been thoroughly debunked throughout the 20th century, but still clings persistently to painting, especially paintings that are made by the artist’s hand. Using craft skill in the 21st century however means something very different. Manual virtuosity is an ingredient that can be sampled among other available objects in the world. Painterly skill is in fact especially tinged by an embarrassing association with traditionalism, out of step with “advanced” art. As a painter I relish this depreciated status of the medium. I also like the way painters throughout the 20th century have thumbed their noses at theoretical discourses that had such a powerful grip on artists. Painting is conducive to an iterative process-driven production where the artist can lose him or herself. The best works are usually those where the artist felt like someone else made it, which is more interesting than many predetermined and contrived conceptual artworks.
- AK