Russian artist Katerina Belkina now belongs to the circle of the most recognized and expensive photographers in the history of the 7th art. One of his works was sold at Sotheby's in London for more than 40,000 Euros. She is part of her major series entitled "Paint" where she becomes both "painter" and model.
The designer revisits portraits of women painters of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: Picasso, Klimt, Schiele, Douanier Rousseau, Modigliani for example. And in the case of Van Gogh the self-portrait of the painter is held by the artist herself.
The original works are easily recognizable. So there is a tribute.But just as much a prodigy of technicality and reinterpreting poetry that gives back its place to the woman. She is in front as behind the image. Brief controllers to get as close as possible to her painter heroes through its reinterpretation and the challenge it brings them.
The femininity that was previously reserved for the model finds a gendered spine. There is a certain physical follow-up except that the artist does not only braid the vertebral columns and that there is no capillary hernia in his work. Such magical phenomena have the appearance of little vengeance.But it is, of course, stronger than that when the models escape their old masters to become Black Dahlia, Rose of China, etc .. Remain the well lubricated gap and dizziness where a form of victory materializes photography on painting.
Jean-Paul Gavard-Perret
Faur Zsofi Gallery, Budapest, 2018
