‘Old Masters / New Light’ course combines traditional technique with new vision.
By Beth Zukowski
If there were to be a formula that Christian Van Minnen’s art would prove, it might be that the sum of the real is unreal.
Van Minnen borrows his technique from the highly realistic Renaissance and Dutch Golden Age painters. One of his major breakthroughs was figuring out how to bring light though color, creating flesh tones that made those ‘Old Master’ portraits so strikingly true to life.
But his work invites in elements that would not conventionally appear in portraits, for instance, plants, food and inner organs in the place of human features. These components are vividly real, yet the composition is wildly imaginative.
His style has been dubbed “Neo-Grotesque.” While the term might bring to mind obvious connotations, it actually stems from the Italian grottesca that Van Minnen explains is “a reference to excavated Roman dwellings whose decorative frescos featured chimeric hybridizations of flora and fauna.”
He infuses his pieces with similar decorative elements. “I combine flora and fauna within portraiture and still life,” he says.
Van Minnen’s work has attracted national and international notice. He was recently featured in a solo show at Seattle’s Roq LaRue Gallery and currently has work featured at the Stockholm Biologiska Museet. He was also selected for this year’s Anderson Ranch Residency Program for painting.
His reach has further widened, he says, because “the Web has been equally as powerful as a show for artists of my generation.” To see Christian’s portfolio, please visit www.seevanminnen.com.
In ‘Old Masters / New Light,’ Van Minnen hopes to help students see through the eyes of the Old Master painters while at the same time not being bound by them. He hopes to encourage the student’s own vision, whatever that vision might be. “Students can explore everything from surrealism to pop art to traditional realism,” he says.
The class will be most beneficial for individuals who have some drawing experience and some experience with oil painting.
‘Old Masters / New Light’ is held Wednesday evenings, June 22 to August 10 at Colorado Mountain College in Carbondale. It is limited to just 12 participants, so early registration is advised.