Crowns
In the portraits from above, the Concentration Portraits, facial expression gives way to the vulnerable crown of a person, whereby only the hair texture still expresses a certain individuality. This perspective blurs the characteristic expressions of the face, although the top view still retains something of a personal recognisability.
The series of crowns zooms in on this unusual part of the body. Strangely enough, this small spot of the visible scalp, this dividing line of the hair, is an intimate part of the body to which one never – or hardly ever – relates to oneself as a person. Once painted, the people portrayed have difficulties recognizing themselves.
Between recognition and pure abstraction, the parting of the hair on the crown seems to take the form of an open wound – a crack in the surface of the painting from which only a mess of paint pours out.
5
1 Crown II, 2008, oil paint on canvas, 50 x 60 cm, photo by M. Seresia
2 Crown III, 2008, oil paint on canvas, 50 x 60 cm, photo by M. Seresia
3 Crown IV, 2008, oil paint on canvas, 50 x 60 cm, photo by M. Seresia
4 Crown V, 2008, oil paint on canvas, 50 x 60 cm, photo by M. Seresia
5 Crown VIII, 2009, oil paint on canvas, 185 x 200 cm
6 Crown IX, 2009, oil paint on canvas, 130 x 150 cm, photo by Ludger Paffrath
2 Crown III, 2008, oil paint on canvas, 50 x 60 cm, photo by M. Seresia
3 Crown IV, 2008, oil paint on canvas, 50 x 60 cm, photo by M. Seresia
4 Crown V, 2008, oil paint on canvas, 50 x 60 cm, photo by M. Seresia
5 Crown VIII, 2009, oil paint on canvas, 185 x 200 cm
6 Crown IX, 2009, oil paint on canvas, 130 x 150 cm, photo by Ludger Paffrath