Inspired by Arcimboldo’s iconic painting Spring, Philip Haas created this exuberant fiberglass sculpture, which is a commentary on the Renaissance painter’s style and a work of art in its own right. Paying tribute to the Arcimboldo’s imaginative designs for court festivals in Vienna and Prague, Haas has constructed a visual puzzle of natural forms – flowers, leaves and petals – as they are reconfigured to form a human portrait. The resulting work is at once grotesque, earthy, expressive and an affirmation of the life force.
Apart from gaining critical appreciation as an artist, Philip Haas has become widely known as a formidable filmmaker. Retrospectives of his documentaries have been held at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York, the Tate in London, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. For his documentary work, Haas was awarded a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation.
Before engaging with Arcimboldo’s Renaissance paintings, Philip Haas did an important commission for the Kimbell Art Museum, in which he used film installations to interpret and elaborate upon selected works in the Museum’s permanent collection. The film The Butcher’s Shop, for example, is Haas’s response to a remarkable early genre subject by Annibale Carracci. It had its debut at the Sonnabend Gallery in New York in April 2008 and was shown to acclaim at that year’s Venice and Toronto film festivals. In Venice it was awarded the "Premio Open," a prize for new works that bridge film and art.
The artwork described above is subject to changes in availability and price without prior notice.
Where applicable ARR will be added.