7 days ago 2
Perhaps an odd choice among so many flashier options, but I adore Alexander Adriaenssen.
There was a brief period when I was a teen where I had to accompany my family for their stints at the local art museum, so I spent a long time wandering aimlessly around the towering baroque halls and staring at all manner of paintings. An overwhelming variety of classics; Paul Leroy's absolutely gigantic "Haman and Mordecai" that took up the whole wall by itself – so detailed you could see the individual strands of fabric in the men's clothing... And yet I found myself entranced by a singular little still life of gutted fish.
Every time I walked around for hours with vacant eyes, and every time I eventually found myself, entranced, before the fish. There are plenty of photos of his works on Google, and they do get the point across, I guess, but they can't do him even a modicum of justice. You have to see those fish with your own eyes. The glistening juicy meat, the iridescent shine of the scales, the wet eyes staring into your soul... In the moment those damned fish felt more real than I was.
I like plenty of artists, both contemporary and not. But Adriaenssen? By the gods, do I love him. If you ever hear about a mysterious heist at the Western and Eastern Art Museum where the only thing to disappear is the little fish painting – I didn't do it, you cannot prove anything, please don't come to my house, lol.