Snyders portrait Anthony van Dyck Of all the artists in history, I have a deep affection for the work of Flemish artists. Why? Well, along with Russians, the Dutch and Flemish painters simply have what it takes to get inside my guts and build a nest. They crawl in there, then they start tugging at the bits of spiritual entrails inside me, tearing at the unnameable gobbets that hang from my innards.
In other words, they get to me.
Foremost on that front is the 16th/17th century artist Frans Snyders. The man took chaos and turned it into a visual symphony. He grasped the real world and showed it to us at it's most brutal; men killing animals, animals killing animals, animals engaged in hideous social cacophonies rarely witness in real life...yet somehow more true than life. His specialty was excess. If there was a table with butchered game, it had corpse after corpse of a dozen or more types of animal and bird. If an animal was being attacked, it was locked in a terrifying, frenzied melee'! I find that overwhelming hyper-reality invigourating. There is nothing staid about Snyders' work. Honestly, I find it difficult to look at his paintings for too long, as they tap into something bestial inside me. It's unsettling.
On the other hand, he has a fondness for paintings of hogs, which, as a former Banjo player, I find highly amusing.
In other words, they get to me.
Foremost on that front is the 16th/17th century artist Frans Snyders. The man took chaos and turned it into a visual symphony. He grasped the real world and showed it to us at it's most brutal; men killing animals, animals killing animals, animals engaged in hideous social cacophonies rarely witness in real life...yet somehow more true than life. His specialty was excess. If there was a table with butchered game, it had corpse after corpse of a dozen or more types of animal and bird. If an animal was being attacked, it was locked in a terrifying, frenzied melee'! I find that overwhelming hyper-reality invigourating. There is nothing staid about Snyders' work. Honestly, I find it difficult to look at his paintings for too long, as they tap into something bestial inside me. It's unsettling.
On the other hand, he has a fondness for paintings of hogs, which, as a former Banjo player, I find highly amusing.
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