"Today many of us have some kind of self-portraits published on the Internet with facebook –profiles, blogs and homepages. The focus on the individual is everywhere - in reality-shows, self-biographical documentaries and novels.
These portraits by Magda Hueckel can be looked upon as a quiet protest against the massive focus on the individual in today`s society. In her pictures the human is naked and stripped of any personality. Only the climate and landscape, with the horizon are changing – following a certain formula in the composition, repetitive and rather meditative and introvert.
Magda Hueckel has named her cycle of photos as “calmed self-portraits” and has thereby placed herself in the long tradition of portraits, choosing to take part of a discussion about identity and the self.
The so called birth of the self in the European Renaissance is connected to new ideas about the self and to economic growth of the high middle class – which also in its turn gave new possibilities to artists. This new ideas came to a special clear expression in the field of visual art in Northern Italy. In this period in the 15th century it has been said the portrait as a genre is developed. The first portraits with individuals not placed in a religious context where then being made by the artists. The most well known examples are those still very strong and communicating portraits of men and women from the upper class in Northern Italy made by Titian, Ghirlandaio, Raphael , Piero della Francesca, Antonella da Messina and of course Leonardo da Vinci with his famous Mona Lisa, - being maybe the most ideal classical female portrait ever in the European portrait history. Even if it`s said that these portraits are showing the inner selves and the true personality of the sitter, these pictures are also loaded with symbols, attributes and references to other pictures and pictorial traditions. All sort of plants and trees, landscapes, family -emblems and animals with distinct symbolism are placed in the pictures together with the model, creating picture puzzles for the spectator to solve.
Of course portraits are never just innocent objective representations of the model, and by naming a picture as a portrait you are putting your piece of art into a subtle and interesting play. The representation of the self and the individual has been - and is constantly discussed in art and in art criticism. A recent, amusing, example here in Kristiansand of this never ending discussion, is the debate about the newly made portrait of our former mayor, Per Oddvar Skisland. One of our prominent politicians thought it was nothing else than a scandal and high levels of feelings and all types of arguments where uttered in the local newspaper. The painter had made him look like Che Guevara was one of the arguments, I seem to remember. The controversial portrait is now placed safely in the city hall and time will show how the next portrait of the current mayor will be.
Magda Hueckel is placing the human in her photos with their back turned to the spectator. The pictures are in a way turning their back to the classical tradition of portraits , - at the same time they raise our awareness of what these pictures are not showing, and in a very efficient way they are giving us a whole set of questions and thoughts about why and where, and who the model is.
The artist Magda Hueckel is from Gdansk in Poland, educated from the Fine Art Academy in both Photography, Graphic - and Stage design, and she has been working as a photographer at a theatre in Warsaw. She has been exhibited with her art and her different portrait cycles many places in Poland and also abroad in France, The United States, Austria, Slovakia and Australia. This is, I believe, the first time she is exhibited in Norway. She was invited by Sidsel Jørgensen and Fotohuset when they first met at the photo festival in Arl in France last summer.
We are very happy to have Magda Hueckel here in Kristiansand!"
Borgfrid Møen, Fotohuset, Kristiansand 25.02.2010
Fotohuset, Østerveien 6, Kristiansand, Norway
Opening: 25.02.2010, 6pm
"Today many of us have some kind of self-portraits published on the Internet with facebook –profiles, blogs and homepages. The focus on the individual is everywhere - in reality-shows, self-biographical documentaries and novels.
These portraits by Magda Hueckel can be looked upon as a quiet protest against the massive focus on the individual in today`s society. In her pictures the human is naked and stripped of any personality. Only the climate and landscape, with the horizon are changing – following a certain formula in the composition, repetitive and rather meditative and introvert.
Magda Hueckel has named her cycle of photos as “calmed self-portraits” and has thereby placed herself in the long tradition of portraits, choosing to take part of a discussion about identity and the self.
The so called birth of the self in the European Renaissance is connected to new ideas about the self and to economic growth of the high middle class – which also in its turn gave new possibilities to artists. This new ideas came to a special clear expression in the field of visual art in Northern Italy. In this period in the 15th century it has been said the portrait as a genre is developed. The first portraits with individuals not placed in a religious context where then being made by the artists. The most well known examples are those still very strong and communicating portraits of men and women from the upper class in Northern Italy made by Titian, Ghirlandaio, Raphael , Piero della Francesca, Antonella da Messina and of course Leonardo da Vinci with his famous Mona Lisa, - being maybe the most ideal classical female portrait ever in the European portrait history. Even if it`s said that these portraits are showing the inner selves and the true personality of the sitter, these pictures are also loaded with symbols, attributes and references to other pictures and pictorial traditions. All sort of plants and trees, landscapes, family -emblems and animals with distinct symbolism are placed in the pictures together with the model, creating picture puzzles for the spectator to solve.
Of course portraits are never just innocent objective representations of the model, and by naming a picture as a portrait you are putting your piece of art into a subtle and interesting play. The representation of the self and the individual has been - and is constantly discussed in art and in art criticism. A recent, amusing, example here in Kristiansand of this never ending discussion, is the debate about the newly made portrait of our former mayor, Per Oddvar Skisland. One of our prominent politicians thought it was nothing else than a scandal and high levels of feelings and all types of arguments where uttered in the local newspaper. The painter had made him look like Che Guevara was one of the arguments, I seem to remember. The controversial portrait is now placed safely in the city hall and time will show how the next portrait of the current mayor will be.
Magda Hueckel is placing the human in her photos with their back turned to the spectator. The pictures are in a way turning their back to the classical tradition of portraits , - at the same time they raise our awareness of what these pictures are not showing, and in a very efficient way they are giving us a whole set of questions and thoughts about why and where, and who the model is.
The artist Magda Hueckel is from Gdansk in Poland, educated from the Fine Art Academy in both Photography, Graphic - and Stage design, and she has been working as a photographer at a theatre in Warsaw. She has been exhibited with her art and her different portrait cycles many places in Poland and also abroad in France, The United States, Austria, Slovakia and Australia. This is, I believe, the first time she is exhibited in Norway. She was invited by Sidsel Jørgensen and Fotohuset when they first met at the photo festival in Arl in France last summer.
We are very happy to have Magda Hueckel here in Kristiansand!"
Borgfrid Møen, Fotohuset, Kristiansand 25.02.2010
Fotohuset, Østerveien 6, Kristiansand, Norwegia
Wernisaż: 25.02.2010, godz. 18.00