Volker Hermes' hidden portraits are on display in Pavia

In Pavia, from October 8, 2020 to January 6, 2021, the Rivellino exhibition hall at Castello Visconteo is hosting the exhibition Identità s-velate. Hidden Portraits, a solo exhibition by German artist Volker Hermes (Wegberg, 1972). Volker Hermes’ work consists of the photographic reworking of pictorial works depicting important portraits made by famous artists of international painting, including Jacometto Veneziano, Bronzino, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, and Pompeo Batoni, between the Renaissance and the 19th century.

The project, begun by the artist about ten years ago, starts with the meaning of the portrait and what it represented for society over the centuries until the invention of photography. Volker meticulously analyzes costumes and poses, details and history, to achieve the goal of making the works of the past relevant, starting with masking and ending with the semantic gap between veiling and covering. Volker Hermes’ work thus aims to establish a bridge of conjunction, a continuity between ancient and modern art, highlighting the evolution of portraiture through the centuries.

From a portrait as an end in itself, merely representative of the character, the artist in fact manages to transcend its meaning, to enter an intimist dimension, pushing us to analyze the inner and hidden aspect of the veiled character by going beyond pure representation. “I would like to show,” says the artist, “that portraits were a luxury good reserved exclusively for a privileged elite. Every pose, every garment, the format and many other details served a statement. These statements were understood at the time as a matter of course. Today we no longer understand these codes; we are used to too quick and immediate an analysis of people and facts.”

Volker Hermes calls for attention to detail, which is essential to initiate a psychological, historical and artistic analysis of the subject. Indeed, the study of the work of art starts from a historical context, dictated by the customs and traditions of the time, in order to re-propose, in its reworkings, important details of the work itself, reaching out to touch on themes such as narcissism, pageantry, references to heraldic codes and symbols, all the way to fetishism. Hair, ruffs, ribbons, laces and masks, derived from the elements already present in the painting, become absolutely topical in contemporary society. Masquerade, already present in the 2019 works, is almost premonitory of a situation that prompts us, in this particular historical moment, to reevaluate the message that the artist intends to highlight. The difference between “veiling,” from the Latin velum, hence ornament, and “covering,” becomes substantial: the former allows the viewer to identify the subject, the latter prompts the viewer to value other elements available for recognition.

The exhibition displays 28 photocollages by Volker Hermes, and the peculiarity lies in the fact that the organizers proposed to the artist to rework some paintings owned by the Civic Museums, some never exhibited to the public and kept in storage. It will thus be an opportunity to view the originals alongside their contemporary reworkings for the first time. Brand new, viewers will be able to admire as many as four previously unpublished works the artist created for Pavia, including a wonderful Portrait of Cardinal Lorenzo Raggio Pistone, by Giovanni Battista Gaulli known as Baciccio, as well as the Portrait of a Gentlewoman, possibly Anne Boleyn, attributed to Frans Pourbus the Younger.

Volker Hermes was born in Wegberg in 1972, studied at theDüsseldorf Academy of Art, and went on to obtain various awards in Germany and abroad, artist fellowships in Italy(Venice), Israel, participating in the Venice Architecture Biennale (2018), also devoting himself to images for feature films or theatrical performances. The Hidden Portrait project was born in 2009/2010, initially as a reflection of the artist that only in 2014/2015 assumed public relevance, finding space even on the sites of museums that preserve the paintings he is inspired by, such as the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

For all information you can call +39 0382 399770 or send an email to prenotazionimc@comune.pv.it.

Pictured: Volker Hermes, Hidden Pourbus Pavia (2020; photomontage, edition 5 + 1 AP)

Volker Hermes' hidden portraits are on display in Pavia

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