Post by commandax on Dec 19, 2009 9:48:58 GMT -8
Actually, that's kind of the opposite of how he works. He creates thousands of tiny fragments and collages them together to create the composition that feels right to him.
He does not use assistants. As he is recreating visions of his inner world, having anyone else do the painting would be antithetical to his purpose.
He doesn't incorporate photographs into his work, although he of course looks at them for reference from time to time, as anyone would.
It's been 7 months since his last show, which wasn't all that major, with only 14 paintings. He paints at least 10 hours straight every day, sometimes more.
Before everyone continues blindly speculating, why don't we take a moment to do a little research? This has all been documented extensively, both in his marvelous book "2239," which contains pictures of him painting and many intermediary elements of his process, as well as these resources online:
Kirsten Anderson's video interview with him in his studio in Amsterdam, Part 1 and Part 2. Kirsten has actually watched him paint, and there's a demonstration of that here.
"Chris Berens' Luminous Visions," a comprehensive profile of him, including descriptions of his process, which he now uses as his artist bio on his website as well as the introduction to his book "99."
Erratic Phenomena's recent in-depth interview with him.
I think what many people aren't really grasping is that Chris is a totally different kind of artist than the ones they're familiar with. He's a true visionary, and motivated and driven by something overpoweringly beautiful within him. Frankly, I think he's kind of a savant, perhaps a genius, and the normative standards for what can be accomplished with paint probably don't apply to him. He's really working completely outside the bounds of what has been done before, both technically and conceptually.
He does not use assistants. As he is recreating visions of his inner world, having anyone else do the painting would be antithetical to his purpose.
He doesn't incorporate photographs into his work, although he of course looks at them for reference from time to time, as anyone would.
It's been 7 months since his last show, which wasn't all that major, with only 14 paintings. He paints at least 10 hours straight every day, sometimes more.
Before everyone continues blindly speculating, why don't we take a moment to do a little research? This has all been documented extensively, both in his marvelous book "2239," which contains pictures of him painting and many intermediary elements of his process, as well as these resources online:
Kirsten Anderson's video interview with him in his studio in Amsterdam, Part 1 and Part 2. Kirsten has actually watched him paint, and there's a demonstration of that here.
"Chris Berens' Luminous Visions," a comprehensive profile of him, including descriptions of his process, which he now uses as his artist bio on his website as well as the introduction to his book "99."
Erratic Phenomena's recent in-depth interview with him.
I think what many people aren't really grasping is that Chris is a totally different kind of artist than the ones they're familiar with. He's a true visionary, and motivated and driven by something overpoweringly beautiful within him. Frankly, I think he's kind of a savant, perhaps a genius, and the normative standards for what can be accomplished with paint probably don't apply to him. He's really working completely outside the bounds of what has been done before, both technically and conceptually.
