Sometimes the works can be read as self-portraits, more often they question the attitude of the average Curacaoan – and, at a universal level, the inhabitants of many former colonies. They are frequently used symbolically and this symbolism is responsible for the interpretation the viewer is able to give to the work. The components vary from toilet pans to religious statues, from parasols to mirrors, from carpets to swimming aids and from wheelbarrows to oil drums. Because the relationship between the various components does not point to an immediate interpretation, the work forms an exciting, intriguing whole. Martha generally makes installations, often large, in which he combines all kinds of objects that play a role in everyday life into a fanciful construction, which sometimes has the air of an architectural structure.
This presentation brought to mind the work of Tirzo Martha. The back only reveals itself to carriers, technical organizers and curators.
For the viewer it is a unique, slightly alienating experience, since he has been conditioned to only look at the front. The hidden nature of the back means that it may well form the most intimate part of the masterwork. It is in any case possible to establish the material with which and from which it has been made. There are holes in them, labels have been stuck on and they have been stamped, there is sometimes a rejected painting here, sometimes a carrier or museum has left its administrative tracks, there is sometimes a date, from which the history of the work can often be traced. For Muniz the backs have their own story, which thereby provides a unique link to the front. In 2016 the museum exhibited five works by the Brazilian artist Vik Muniz, five life-size prints of the backs of paintings by famous Old Masters. This quote is from Emilie Gordenker, director of the Mauritshuis in The Hague.
Slapdash used in paint series#
The Verso series establishes a meaningful link between the contemporary art of Vik Muniz and the Old Master paintings in the collection of the Mauritshuis. The collaboration with Vik Muniz is an outstanding example. Our exhibition program aims to present our collection of seventeenth-century paintings in new and inspiring ways, and to share this with our audience. Rob Perrée on the art of Tirzo Martha, from Curacao. He is opening a discussion on painting as a genre and so relegating the current terminology – painting, sculpture, installation, etc. Because Martha actually plays with space in all his works, you could call the work an example of this. To him the back (of a painting) is more than a coincidental narrative it probably even forms the plot of the story.
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