The Angel (painting)

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The Angel, oil on canvas, 200 cm × 300 cm (79 in × 118 in)

The Angel is a 2013 painting by the Belgian Michaël Borremans. Painted in oil on a three-metre-high canvas, it shows a blonde woman in a light pink dress and black face paint. It was made in 2013 after Borremans found the dress in a carnival store and had the fashion model Hannelore Knuts pose with it in his studio. Critics have described the painting as enigmatic, androgynous and eye-catching. It was first exhibited in Antwerp in 2013 and was the main publicity image for a Borremans exhibition held in Brussels, Tel Aviv and Dallas in 2014–2015.

Background[edit]

Michaël Borremans is a Belgian painter born in 1963. He is known for works he creates by photographing models in a studio, often with enigmatic costumes and props, and painting them in oil from a computer screen. He is influenced by Old Master techniques, including how painters like Johannes Vermeer used a camera obscura to incorporate photographic techniques.[1]

According to Borremans, his painting The Angel began with a dress he found in a carnival store and immediately found appealing. He considered painting a man wearing the dress but thought it would be too easy.[2] He chose to use the Belgian fashion model Hannelore Knuts who he had met previously through her ex-boyfriend Nicolas Provost, a video artist.[3] Borremans described her as "tall, slim and a bit androgynous".[2] Knuts modelled for the painting while she was in Belgium to participate in Sterren op de Dansvloer [nl], the Flemish version of Dancing with the Stars, and said it felt good to stand still.[3]

Subject and composition[edit]

The Angel shows a tall woman who stands in front of a wall. She wears a floor-length light pink dress with short sleeves. Her blonde hair is combed back, her eyes are closed and her face is painted black.[3] The painting is in oil on canvas and has the dimensions 200 cm × 300 cm (79 in × 118 in).[4]

Hannelore Knuts in 2006

Knuts posed for The Angel at Borremans' second Ghent studio, which had been repurposed from a Catholic chapel in 2012.[1] Borremans asked her to express serenity and photographed her from various angles with different backgrounds and light, before choosing one picture to paint. The combed-back hair was her idea; she thought it would make the character harder to identify or place in time.[3] The face paint, which Borremans applied, was a paint used for Zwarte Piet makeup.[4] Borremans says there is no key to interpreting his works and he intentionally includes details that point in contradictory directions. He says creating The Angel helped him in a personal way, as he suffered emotionally at the time and it made him move on, and he thinks it has universality: "Gender, racism... I wanted to point to all these things. It's a portrait of humanity in a way."[1] The painting process took one week in 2013. Borremans says it was very intense and he thought something bad would happen if he left the studio before it was finished.[1]

Reception[edit]

De Standaard's Geert Van der Speeten said The Angel stands out among Borremans' paintings because the human figure looks idealised. He described her as an androgynous version of a Disney character.[5] The same newspaper's Jan Van Hove called the image eye-catching and mysterious.[6] When it was shown in Brussels, it received considerable spread in social media; Le Soir called it "the most photogenic painting" of the exhibition.[7]

Maggie Gray of Apollo and Graham Lawson of The Jerusalem Post stressed the enigmatic aspect of The Angel.[1][8] Lawson highlighted the androgynity of the figure, likened her to a commedia dell'arte performer and said she is "stately and beautiful" regardless of the painting's origin or meaning.[8] Gray, writing in 2016, said the painting had become "something of an icon".[1]

Provenance[edit]

The Angel was part of The People from the Future Are not to Be Trusted, a Borremans solo exhibition held from 1 September to 12 October 2013 at the gallery Zeno X in Antwerp.[9] It was part of a large, travelling retrospective of Borremans' works titled As Sweet as It Gets. This was held at the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels from 22 February to 3 August 2014,[4] the Tel Aviv Museum of Art from 2 September 2014 to 31 January 2015[10] and the Dallas Museum of Art from 15 March to 5 July 2015.[11] The Angel was the primary publicity image for the retrospective and is used as cover art for the book Michaël Borremans: As Sweet as It Gets (2014), published on the occasion of the event.[1][12] It is on the cover of Herman Rohaert's poetry collection Beyond here lies nothin' (2019).[13]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Gray, Maggie (5 March 2016). "The modern mysteries of Michaël Borremans". Apollo. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  2. ^ a b Van Boxem, Koen (15 February 2014). "'Ik ben een beeldhouwer met een probleem'" ["I'm a sculptor with one problem"]. De Tijd (in Dutch). Retrieved 17 June 2022. Toen schoot me Hanelore Knuts te binnen: lang, slank en beetje androgyn
  3. ^ a b c d Williamson, Sue (3 March 2014). "The Model as Muse". W. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  4. ^ a b c Theys, Hans (2014). "Het mysterie Michaël Borremans" [The mystery Michaël Borremans]. Openbaar Kunstbezit Vlaanderen [nl] (in Dutch) (1). Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  5. ^ Van der Speeten, Geert (3 September 2013). "Dreigende nieuwe wereld" [Menacing new world]. De Standaard (in Dutch). Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  6. ^ Van Hove, Jan (21 February 2014). "Raadsels zonder sleutel" ['Riddles without a key]. De Standaard (in Dutch). Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  7. ^ Dieryck, Sophie; Gauthier, Flavie (31 July 2014). "Comment les musées gèrent le succès" [How museums manage success]. Le Soir (in French). Retrieved 17 June 2022. Le tableau le plus photogénique
  8. ^ a b Lawson, Graham (27 September 2014). "As sweet as it gets". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  9. ^ "Michaël Borremans: The people from the future are not to be trusted" (PDF). zeno-x.com (in Dutch and English). Zeno X. 2013. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  10. ^ "Michaël Borremans: As sweet as it gets". tamuseum.org.il. Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  11. ^ "Michaël Borremans: As sweet as it gets". dma.org. Dallas Museum of Art. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  12. ^ "Major Survey of Michaël Borremans Work Makes U.S. Debut at Dallas Museum of Art in March 2015". dma.org. Dallas Museum of Art. Retrieved 17 June 2022.
  13. ^ Choi, Kamiel (6 September 2019). "Liefdespoëzie in tijden van nihilisme" [Love poetry in an age of nihilism]. Meander [nl] (in Dutch). Retrieved 17 June 2022.

Further reading[edit]

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