Friends of Richard Pousette-Dart. Tönnheim Gallery.
Tönnheim Gallery is pleased to present the American artist Claudia Doring Baez, whose work is part of international reference institutions such as the prestigious Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid and the Bronx Museum of Art in New York, arrives with her exhibition ‘Friends of Richard Pousette-Dart’. The opening is open to the public on Saturday 25 January, from 11:00 to 14:30h.
Claudia Doring Baez pays tribute to the photographic work of Richard Pousette-Dart, this time with a new series of paintings from his most recent solo exhibition entitled ‘Pousette-Dart: Friends & Flowers’. This new collection is a vibrant reinterpretation of Richard Pousette-Dart’s black and white photographic portraits of friends, family and colleagues. Pousette-Dart, a pioneer of abstract expressionism, was renowned for his innovative techniques, such as drip painting, which later inspired figures such as Jackson Pollock. A multifaceted American artist, he excelled not only in painting, but also in photography, poetry and music. His unique approach to photography, conceiving it as a powerful tool for redefining the visual world.
In the exhibition ‘Pousette-Dart: Friends & Flowers’, Claudia Doring Baez transforms the artist’s black and white portraits, revitalising them and turning them into vibrant oil paintings. Through her work, Doring Baez links the past and present in innovative ways by exploring paint, colour and composition. Paying homage through this creative reinterpretation to the early expressionists, while reviving the artistic legacy of Pousette-Dart. Inspired by his nature studies, he challenges the traditional limits of still life and portraiture by creating abstractions full of expression. His work connects nature, history and modernity, resulting in a visual narrative that transcends time and space.
Director and writer Alexandra Zelman-Doring masterfully sums up Doring Baez’s creative process: ‘If photography for Pousette-Dart was “a vehicle for palpably remaking the visual matter of the world”, painting for Doring Baez transforms photographic matter through a bold and spiritual investigation of light, colour and form. Pousette-Dart’s overlapping, layered forms create a complex self-portrait that Doring Baez’s paintings humorously transform, bringing this image from the past and giving it new life.’
In Doring Baez’s works, an overexposed female face, now reinterpreted in thick oils, dialogues with Edvard Munch’s ‘Love and Anguish’, evoking a female figure that appears and disappears. Pousette-Dart’s nature studies allow Doring Baez to approach nature in a more meaningful way: through the photographer’s lens, the dramatically exposed flowers come to life with a theatrical intensity, becoming the protagonists of an ever-changing stage.
For more information and photographs, please contact:
Mattias Tönnheim +46 704-411914 or mattias@wadstromtonnheim.se
www.tonnheimgallery.com // https://instagram.com/wadstromtonnheimgallery
Tönnheim Gallery’s mission is to examine the idea of the pictorial, through related media such as photography, sculpture, installations, video and drawing, with the aim of understanding and promoting the evolution of painting and its relevance in contemporary visual culture.
Claudia Doring Baez (American, b. 1960 in Mexico City, lives and works in New York)
Claudia Doring Baez’s works are characterised by a reverence for art history, transformed from a contemporary and expressionist vocabulary. The artist engages in dialogue with artists of the past from whom she selects, recreates and adopts details of their images. Her works are replete with references to art and literature, ranging from German Expressionism to Marcel Proust, Brassaï, the rich interpretations of Titian, abstract versions of the works of Fra Angelico and Johannes Vermeer, along with the inspirations of contemporary artists such as Cindy Sherman. Through his paintings, he offers the viewer a new way of looking at art history and personal stories.
Claudia Doring Baez exhibits her work internationally in cities such as New York, Miami, Mexico City, Spain, Switzerland, and her work has been published in magazines such as Art News Magazine.
