In Pieces, 2013-15
Information about the artwork
- MaterialOil on canvas, seam
- Dimensions250 x 204 cm
- Year of acquisition2016
- Inventory numberUAB 1052
- On viewOn view
- Copyright© the artist
More about the artwork
Monika Baer’s “In Pieces” is a mysterious artwork. Everything in this painting is pushed to the margins. Painted delicately and translucently, half-empty bottles of alcohol, some of them overturned, gather at the bottom of the work. In front of them are two hyperrealistic corks. On the right is the sketched outline of a head whose gaze wanders beyond the painting’s frame. On the left, some sections painted in white appear to have been collaged into the picture. Upon them are a few brushstrokes resembling color swatches or paint samples. The scene is reminiscent of a just-abandoned stage. The remains suggest a state of intoxication—a timeless theme in art. One imagines the absent protagonist as a cliché of the tormented artist’s soul, soaked in alcohol. Here, Baer not only presents the authority of the expressive—male—painter-ego as a caricature, but also paints the picture of a creative rush that is as sophisticated as it is banal.
