The Masterpiece 2018 at the Chelsea Barrack
- cndartstudio
- Dec 10, 2018
- 1 min read
I had the pleasure of attending the very glamorous and interesting Masterpiece 2018 exhibition, which presents itself as “a fair where the world’s leading galleries, curators and experts present a broad range of art, design, furniture and jewellery, mainly for collectors”.
In the entrance was an installation by Marina Abramović, a Serbian-born performance artist in collaboration with Factum Art - a mind blowing self portrait video work projected onto curtains which you could walk through to enter the stand arranged with zig-zag panels showing what seemed to be a concave self portrait in alabaster with an integrated LED source panel.
Another highlight of my visit was a live Interview of Jonathan Yeo by Phillip Mould the art dealer, who presented pictures of some of Yeo’s famous portraits, including one of Philip Mould himself. Yeo explained how his relationship with his sitters affects the development of his compositions, and that the interpretation of his work is in the eye of the beholder.
One of the works discussed was Yeo’s portrait of Tony Blair with the bright red poppy, and he explained that Blair didn’t actually wear a poppy in his sittings. When the portrait was done however Yeo felt it needed something to finish it off and he added the poppy, with the bright red referencing the blood of the Iraq war, and how apprehensive he was of Blair’s reaction when he saw it. When he did see it however he was pleased with the portrait - whether he realised the subliminal message is not clear.
Reference
https://uk. reuters.com/article/uk-britain-blair-portrait/blair-wears-poppy-in-first-official-portrait-idUKL1884248920080119
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