Nigel Mullins: Salt Mines of Heilbronn
Mullins, Nigel (b 1969)
Salt Mines of Heilbronn - 2014
Oil on Superwood and frame
69 x 82 cm
Signed and dated top right
Available
Nigel Mullins appears courtesy of Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town
The idea of the masterpiece has been a point of contemplation in my recent work. I have presented paint spattered and broken antique frames, as a way of pointing to and exaggerating the fetishisation of the art object [any object, idea, etc., eliciting unquestioning reverence, respect, or devotion]. I have combined this reverence of the European museum piece with the other definition of fetish “… an object regarded with awe as being the embodiment or habitation of a potent spirit or as having magical potency.” The masterpiece has all the pomp, weight and value bestowed on it by history and canonized by its gold frame.
I have also approached the issue more literally with this image of a Rembrandt Self-portrait, stolen and hidden in a salt mine by the Nazis during WWII. Fascinating that in the midst of total war, both sides were stealing and hiding, “masterpieces”! - NM