Lot 10: Michaël Borremans

The Veils
Signed, titled and dated “Michaël M.C.G. Borremans – The Veils – J.O.C. 2001” on the reverse.

13 3/4 x 17 3/4 in. (34.9 x 45.1 cm).

Oil on canvas.

2001

Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp; Private collection, New York

...In my paintings there are no individuals, they're just types, stereotypes, two-dimensional images. They're human beings in their symbolic quality, like pieces in a chess game - they stand for something. I also wanted to avoid showing contemporary people because I think that has an anecdotal connotation, which wasn't useful for me because I wanted to depict this very general, 20th -century man.
 
-Michaël Borremans
 
(J. Ribas, “The AI Interview: Michaël Borremans,” Art Info, March 14, 2006) 
Trained as a photographer, Michaël Borremans masterfully paints on canvas with a cinematic approach. In keeping with a classical manner, his work transports the viewer back in time. As seen in The Veils, Borremans reveals a glimpse into the mysteries of the figures he chooses to paint. Much as with a film still, the painting delves into a psychological moment being experienced by its characters and translates these inexplicable emotions onto canvas. Straddling the thin line between reality and a dream world, it remains unclear what exactly the figures here are doing—their actions veiled, in a sense, by an oppressive sense of timelessness and mystery. Like a blanket, Borremans uses the veil to cover the figures as a means of alluding to the latent pressure of being human.
In The Veils, Borremans transports painting to a more profound level by subtly including allusions to drawing, cinematic film and photography. “All of Borremans’ work shares a sense of ambiguity and melancholy, with elements of the bizarre creeping into what at first seems like a technically startling, yet straightforward realism. Through imagery harkening back to an undatable past—though there are hints of the 1940’s—Borremans creates an austere and oppressive world where things become more and more disturbing the deeper you look” (J. Ribas, “The AI Interview: Michaël Borremans,” Art Info, March 14, 2006).