Untitled (St John)

Bathed in light, the sculptural silhouettes of a grieving Saint John and a Madonna is profiled, alone, against the black background of what appears to be a photographic reproduction. It is, in fact, an oil on canvas re-transcribing in the most meticulous detail the aesthetics of an old black and white photograph.

This small format, which is at odds with Rudolf Stingel’s monumental work, is part of a series of paintings showing different medieval sculptures, begun by enlarging original photos and finished by hand. The hyperrealist pictorial transcription of the religious motif with its pathetic features, beneath the dark and dated finish of an old print, gives it an all the more dramatic dimension, with connotations of vanity.

Untitled (St John) and Untitled (Madonna) was first exhibited by the Pinault Collection at the "Rudolf Stingel" show, which was held in 2013 at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice.