Michaël Borremans: As Sweet as It Gets

Description

Since the late 1990s, when he first began to produce drawings and paintings, Michaël Borremans has created an extraordinarily mature body of work that has captured international attention. The disparate spaces he imagines in his paintings, drawings, sculptures and films are unified by an uncanny sense of dislocation and an often unsettling beauty. Rendered in complex palettes and exquisite techniques, Borremans’ works in all media embrace a rich legacy of artistic progenitors, but remain firmly anchored in the present. Presenting over 100 works created by the artist over a 14-year period in all media, this publication includes many works not previously reproduced in books or catalogues, offering the most complete overview of Borremans’ oeuvre to date. Contributions include a concise and incisive overview of Borremans’ practice; a revealing, in-depth interview between the main author of the book, Jeffrey Grove, and the artist, addressing process, influence and philosophical and critical issues; as well as more than 50 individual entries and mini-essays on individual works in the artist’s oeuvre by notable writers, curators, filmmakers and musicians. Described by the artist as "the mother of all Borremans books," Michaël Borremans: As Sweet As It Gets is published on the occasion of a major mid-career retrospective. Initially trained in photography and graphic design, the Belgian artist Michaël Borremans (born 1963) turned to painting at the age of 30. Work by the artist is held in numerous public collections, including The Art Institute of Chicago; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Borremans lives and works in Ghent. Review: Excellent; Superb; Wonderful! - Michael Borremans’s paintings feature a somnambulant hyper-realism depicted in a desiccated dulling still-life numbness which by way of accentuating the shadowplay becomes singed with just enough reality to allow each subject to become a phantom presence of its own silence. In these still-lives, shrouded as they are in the mysteries of painting as well as in a mystical fainting simplicity, the subject defines its existential nature in a state of suspension. Figures are captured in various stages of reverie, conveying an emotional vacuum, distancing its presence away from the viewer, yet through the viewer’s interrogation of what the nature of being and of painting may be. The uncanny, dream-like intensity behind these surfaces renders them as lodged into a loneliness, the isolation of existence retrieving its own angst and lulling the pulse. The most impressive quality of these paintings is how they manage to exist in spite of its claim to be at a loss, dissipating beings and things with nary a claim to being anything more than a painting and the absence it transfigures within the alienating mental state they personify. The paintings reproduced with such glorious success are for the most part modest and small in scale, yet no less chilling and disturbing in their presentation; however this excellent retrospective of Borremans reproduces his paintings in a very large, coffee-table size art book. The chance taken by the editors and publishing house is commendable. It manages to retain that surreal quality while not compromising the stupor it incites. Every painting is accompanied by a brief 3 paragraphs of description and history of the painting, which often swells into lyrical domains. The seven excellent and compelling essays written by the editors are wonders that refract their splendor on the hush of the reproductions, while the interviews of Jeffrey Grove reveal a Borremans deeply engaged with the meaning of life in each and every nature mort expressive displays he puts to canvas. The price is relatively affordable compared to most other art books this size. And the epistolary poems and disorienting meditations that complement the book promise an experience that is both indelible and enriching. “Michael Borremans: As Sweet as it Gets” is a more complete and sensational experience compared to the other retrospective available in English (Eating the Bread; edited by Hans Christ). Excellent; Superb; Wonderful! Review: No Other Book On Borremans Can Come Close - What a wonderful book. It's a giant one, maybe you have to use two arms to hold it...also very thick! it is packed with information about Borreman's work, and the pictures are clear as day. It's a fantastic book for anyone who loves Borreman's work, whether you be an art student like me, or an art lover. All the other books on him and his work don't come close to this one, it is worth the price!