Artworks

I made this work looking at Nuptial Allegory (1757), a fresco by Tiepolo at Ca’Rezzonico, a beautiful Venetian palazzo filled with 18th century treasures. I’m always drawn to the flamboyance of rococo art and this fresco is irresistibly over-the-top. It feels very fantastical, almost Disney-esque. Making this work was a chance for me to explore Tiepolo’s pinks and indulge in the more sugary parts of his work. I wanted my painterly gesture to capture an attitude of fantasy and flourish in a dreamlike way, without having to fully articulate the imagery. Flora Yukhnovich (May 2020) Specific to this painting: A musical composition with a free form and often an improvisatory style - (also one of my favourite cartoons) This painting is based on Tiepolo’s Wedding Allegory (1757) from Ca’Rezzonico. I really liked how pink it is – there is a type of pink called Tiepolo Pink, which feels like a really important colour defining 18th century painting- it’s a bit more of a dusty pink than the French candy pinks, to me it feels very specific to Italy. There is also something which feels a bit like a Disney fairytale about the huge smiling horse which I tried to bring to my version. General: I think the sense of rhythm and movement is what has really stuck with me from the Venetian paintings and from the feeling of living in Venice, with the lapping water, and the changes of pace between the dense narrow streets, opening into broad vistas as you cross the canal. So I’ve ended up titling them all names of Italian musical forms. I hope it can talk about the sense of play and pleasure in the work, which although less explicit than in the imagery of the French rococo, manifests in the Italian rococo in the way the paintings sort of dance your eye through the compositions and in the fresh light colours of the frescos.