ART-PRESENTATION: Kasper Bosmans-Four

In 2013, Kasper Bosmans started to paint legends on small boards, as his alternative to the information that is usually displayed on museum wall labels next to works of art. These tiny, mysterious little panels are decorated with abstracted drawings full of symbolism, inspired by traditional heraldry. In these small paintings, Bosmans manages to combine stories and associations that – at best – generate enigmatic images. The artist perceives them as a tool to access his art, like a guide, and a substitute for a curator’s or copywriter’s words accompanying the artwork.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Gladstone Gallery Archive

Continuing his longstanding use of references spanning cultures, periods, and traditions in order to speak about ongoing socio-political issues, Kasper Bosmans presents new and recent work in his solo exhibition “Four”. The show specifically uses the multivalent act of collecting as a springboard into discussing topics both deeply personal and profoundly universal.  The main feature of the exhibition is a multi-panel enamel mural that displays, to-scale, the eggs of all birds painted by 17^th Century Dutch artist Melchior d’Hondecoeter. Fitting with the genre of Dutch still life, d’Hondecoeter meticulously depicted birds brought back to the Netherlands by way of the East India Trading Company’s Asian routes, as well as those endemic to Europe, and in the process created a body of work that was equal parts ornithological catalogue and phenomenological Kunstkammer. Bringing this art historical reference into the twenty-first-century, Bosmans elects to only depict the eggs of d’Hondecoeter’s catalogue of birds. Rife with symbolism – from renewal and fertility, to consumption and commodification – Bosmans’s eggs coyly reveal the commercial impact on the West’s portrayal of history, a fact underscored by the enamel medium utilized for this work, which harkens to a material closely associated with advertising. Other parts of the exhibition further this use of historical factoids in service of topical commentary. A site-specific sand installation, a bold natural-hued mural, and a number of readymades all point to the possibilities for collection as both a necessary survival tactic and an imperialist predilection. The visual language that Bosmans adopts to investigate these issues finds added exposition in the artist’s ‘Legend’ paintings. These small-scale paint on panel works display symbols and iconography that allow the viewer to scan the pieces for discernible clues with which to “read” the forms and themes that Bosmans considers throughout the larger exhibition. Taken as a whole, “Four” presents a body of work that collectively melds Bosmans’s interest in history with his deft craftsmanship, producing an immersive environment that is both politically aware and temporally detached.

Info: Gladstone Gallery, 130 East 64th Street, New York , Duration: 17/9-24/10/20, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-17:00, www.gladstonegallery.com