Michael Mapes — Cantor Fine Art

Cantor Fine Art Michael Mapes Female Dutch Blue

This piece is by Michael Mapes. The video was created by Cantor Fine Art a Los Angeles Art Gallery. Visit Cantorfineart.com to learn more. Year: 2015 Size: 34in x 28in x 3.5in Condition: Perfect Assemblages: Construction box assemblages, photographs, Petri dish, specimen bags, pill capsules, insect pins, pinning foam, map pins, cotton thread, plastic boxes, clay, fabric. The original painting is titled: Portrait of Jacoba van Orliens, Wife of Jacob de Witte of Haamstede. Have you ever wondered why nearly all Dutch people dress in orange during national holidays? After all, the colors of the official Dutch flag are red, white, and blue. The answer is this: Orange is the color of the Dutch Royal Family, which hails from the House of Orange. Netherlands Heraldry is fascinating and important, particularly when we are talking about portraiture. Our subjects pink silk, while beautiful, was also a symbol of her family and wealth. Think of it kinda like family flags in Game of Thrones, but with less killing and more tulips. Jacoba’s husband was named Jacob de Witte, and his portrait was painted by Jan Mitjens as well. These portraits were mainly for wealthy merchants and aristocracy. So beyond being a handsome devil, Jacob was the Lord of Haamstede. Haamstede is a town in the Dutch province of Zeeland. The statistical area "Haamstede" currently has a population of around 2460. To learn more about this piece visit cantorfineart.com. All inquiries can be sent to: ljc (at) cantorfineart.com.

This piece is by Michael Mapes. The video was created by Cantor Fine Art a Los Angeles Art Gallery. Visit Cantorfineart.com to learn more. Here are some details about the work. Year: 2014 Size: 24.5in x 13in x 3.5in Condition: Perfect Assemblages: Construction Box Assemblages_Signed, verso. Photograph, drawings, insect pins, pinning foam, pill capsules, specimen bags, plastic canister, glass vials, magnifying box, push pins, map pins, Bristol paper, canvas, cotton, spices, and fabric. The composite series studies the basic premise that many of the components of Dutch portraits were interchangeable. The emergence of the Dutch school of painting in the early seventeenth century is one of the most stories in the history of the visual arts. The Netherlands had only recently become a political entity and gaining independence resulted in an enormous sense of self-esteem. The Dutch were proud of their achievements, proud of their people, and intent upon creating a broad and lasting foundation for the future. In our opinion, they expressed pride most famously in their rich artistic traditions. Portrait artists adhered strictly to the foundations laid out by the Dutch school of painting, and the above image is an example of that. We took 7 different male portraits by seven different dutch artists and average them together. The result is a nearly in tact but more importantly, very dutch male feeling portrait. Beyond suggesting the commonality in Dutch portrait painting of that era, Michael was also interested in making works that bore a stronger relationship to collage of the early 20th century. In some respects, working with smaller and less parts, required a more deliberate sense of composition. He described the works as having the feeling of a chess game where individual moves were separated by long expanses of time. To learn more about this piece visit cantorfineart.com. All inquiries can be sent to: ljc (at) cantorfineart.com.

This piece is by Michael Mapes. The video was created by Cantor Fine Art a Los Angeles Art Gallery. Visit Cantorfineart.com to learn more. Year: 2015 Size: 36in x 30in x 3.5in Condition: Perfect Assemblages: Construction Box Assemblages,signed, verso. Photograph, drawings, insect pins, pinning foam, pill capsules, specimen bags, plastic canister, glass vials, magnifying box, push pins, map pins, dried rose petals, dried rose stem, Bristol paper, canvas, cotton, human hair, acrylic nails, false eyelashes, eyeshadow, perfume vial, and fabric This is a recreation of a painting by the artist Gil Elvgren. Gil is one of the most iconic of pin up artists. A closer examination of the work reveals elements obviously not part of the original painting. False eyelashes, acrylic nails, costume jewelry, makeup, fabric, and photographs of the original artist. As in earlier works, Michael is building a collection of "biographical DNA" that represents a far more dimensional representation of the original painted subject matter. To learn more about this piece visit cantorfineart.com. All inquiries can be sent to: ljc (at) cantorfineart.com.

Cantor Fine Art Rafik Hariri

This piece is by Michael Mapes. The video was created by Cantor Fine Art a Los Angeles Art Gallery. Visit Cantorfineart.com to learn more. Here are some details about the work. Year: 2007 Size: 22in H X 22in W X 3.5in X D Condition: Excellent Assemblages: photographic prints, misc collage materials, insect pins, pinning foam, glass vials, magnifiers, gelatin capsules, resin filled plastic containers The work seeks a balance between seeing the work as individual elements and parts to a whole. Michaels work is often scientific in aesthetic and plays off the principles of Gestalt psychology. Gestalt psychology is a school of thought that believes all objects and scenes can be observed in their simplest forms. Sometimes referred to as the 'Law of Simplicity,' the theory proposes that the whole of an object or scene is more important than its individual parts. We see this is Specimen AM that the portraits is like a swarm of smaller portraits of pieces of the original face they depict. To us this is the most scientific feeling of all Michaels works. Whenever we look at the piece it transports us to an old warm surreal laboratory brimming over with beakers and charm. As Michael puts it, "Working within my pseudo-scientific metaphor, I wanted to create a cross over between laboratory shelf and vanity cabinet." This is early work from Michael’s "Human Specimens" series. To the best of our knowledge we are one of the last, if not the last place any work from “human specimens” series is still available. In large part, because the series was widely celebrated and this piece is actually from Michael’s personal collection. The last place it was shown publicly was the Billings Art Museum show “Face to Face.” To learn more about this piece visit cantorfineart.com. All inquiries can be sent to: ljc (at) cantorfineart.com.

This piece is by Michael Mapes. The video was created by Cantor Fine Art a Los Angeles Art Gallery. Visit Cantorfineart.com to learn more. Year: 2014 Size: 20in x 16in x 3in Condition: Perfect Assemblages: Construction Box Assemblages_Signed, verso. Photograph, drawings, insect pins, pinning foam, pill capsules, specimen bags, plastic canister, glass vials, magnifying box, push pins, map pins, Bristol paper, canvas, cotton, spices, and fabric "Dutch Adriana" was based on a 1667 Nicolaes Pickenoy painting of Adriana Jacobusdr Hinlopen. By the mid-1660s Amsterdam was governed by a body of regents, a large, but closed, oligarchy with control over all aspects of the city's life, and a dominant voice in the foreign affairs of Holland. The first step for an ambitious and wealthy merchant family was to arrange a marriage with a long-established regent family. Adriana's husband Johannes Wijbrants was a regent. So Michael translated her hair in different ways that paid homage to their merchant background and subsequent wealth. Much of Adriana's hair is comprised of spice samples contained in pill capsules.

This piece is by Michael Mapes. The video was created by Cantor Fine Art a Los Angeles Art Gallery. Visit Cantorfineart.com to learn more. Year: 2014 Size: 34in x 28in x 3.5in Condition: Perfect Assemblages: Construction box assemblages, photographs, Petri dish, specimen bags, pill capsules, insect pins, pinning foam, map pins, cotton thread, plastic boxes, clay, fabric This is a portrait of Jochem Swartenhont a fascinating aristocrat in 1627. Owing to Jochem's position of Admiral in a fleet that not only protected it's countrymen but also precious shipping lines, Michael was inspired to include coffee, tea, gunpowder alongside of numerous nautical references. He included dates of birth and death, genealogy references including portraits of his wife and daughter, and direct references to the artist of the painting. While the piece itself is beautiful, Michaels scholarly approach to creating this piece makes this so much more than a portrait. It has become the entire story of a man's life. To learn more about this piece visit cantorfineart.com. All inquiries can be sent to: ljc (at) cantorfineart.com.

This piece is by Michael Mapes. The video was created by Cantor Fine Art a Los Angeles Art Gallery. Visit Cantorfineart.com to learn more. Year: 2014 Size: 24.5in x 13in x 3.5in Condition: Perfect Assemblages: Construction Box Assemblages_Signed, verso. Photograph, drawings, insect pins, pinning foam, pill capsules, specimen bags, plastic canister, glass vials, magnifying box, push pins, map pins, Bristol paper, canvas, cotton, spices, and fabric The emergence of the Dutch school of painting in the early seventeenth century is one of the most stories in the history of the visual arts. The Netherlands had only recently become a political entity and gaining independence resulted in an enormous sense of self-esteem. The Dutch were proud of their achievements, proud of their people, and intent upon creating a broad and lasting foundation for the future. In our opinion, they expressed pride most famously in their rich artistic traditions. Portrait artists adhered strictly to the foundations laid out by the Dutch school of painting, and the above image is an example of that. We took 7 different female portraits by seven different dutch artists and average them together in photoshop. The result is a nearly in tact but more importantly, very dutch female feeling, portrait. The emergence of the Dutch school of painting in the early seventeenth century is one of the most stories in the history of the visual arts. The Netherlands had only recently become a political entity and gaining independence resulted in an enormous sense of self-esteem. The Dutch were proud of their achievements, proud of their people, and intent upon creating a broad and lasting foundation for the future. In our opinion, they expressed pride most famously in their rich artistic traditions. Portrait artists adhered strictly to the foundations laid out by the Dutch school of painting, and the above image is an example of that. We took 7 different female portraits by seven different dutch artists and average them together in photoshop. The result is a nearly in tact but more importantly, very dutch female feeling, portrait. To learn more about this piece visit cantorfineart.com. All inquiries can be sent to: ljc (at) cantorfineart.com.

This piece is by Michael Mapes. The video was created by Cantor Fine Art a Los Angeles Art Gallery. Visit Cantorfineart.com to learn more. Year: 2014 Size: Both: 11in x 11in x 3in Condition: Perfect Assemblages: Construction Box Assemblages_Signed, verso. Photograph, drawings, insect pins, pinning foam, pill capsules, specimen bags, plastic canister, glass vials, magnifying box, push pins, map pins, Bristol paper, canvas, cotton, spices, and fabric The composite series studies the basic premise that many of the components of Dutch portraits were interchangeable. Beyond suggesting the commonality in Dutch portrait painting of that era, Michael is also interested in making works that bore a stronger relationship to collage of the early 20th century. In some respects, working with smaller and less parts, required a more deliberate sense of composition. To learn more about this piece visit cantorfineart.com. All inquiries can be sent to: ljc (at) cantorfineart.com.