Abstract

The blend of realism and theatricality found in 17th century baroque painting can be reapplied to the creation of contemporary narrative drawings and paintings. Originating from an in-depth study of figure drawing and the baroque paintings of Peter Paul Rubens in Paris, this project reimagines gods and goddesses from ancient Greek and Egyptian mythology in a style that draws upon historical baroque and contemporary figurative artmaking practices, resulting in a fusion which can be characterized as neobaroque. Research conducted on various contemporary figurative painters reveals an evolving, eclectic movement of artists who present fresh takes on painting rooted in history, particularly the historical baroque. These artists are compared with their historical predecessors to reveal ways that they draw from and elaborate upon them, bringing a baroque-infused painterly language to the present. The Mythic Images exhibit uses such a language to revitalize figures from archaic myth, paralleling the representations of mythology in baroque painting while integrating them with contemporary concerns. The interest in mythology is informed by James Hillman’s Archetypal Psychology, in which mythic entities are conceived of as metaphors personifying various states of the human psyche. As a reflection of this variety, the drawings and paintings in this series portray a spectrum of emotions, color schemes, and subthemes; this emphasis on variety honors the boisterous nature of the polytheistic world of ancient mythology, which runs counter to our contemporary monotheist biases towards unity. The works in this exhibit invite the viewer to question the dividing lines between mythology and reality, history and the present.

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