Michaël Borremans

Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Oslo, Kunstnernes Hus; Stuttgart, Württembergischer Kunstverein; Budapest, Mücsarnok Kunsthalle Budapest; Helsinki, Kunsthalle Helsinki, Michaël Borremans: Eating the Beard, February - October 2011, p. 207, illustrated in colour
Tokyo, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, The Advantage, January - March 2014
Malaga, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Fixture, October 2015 - January 2016, p. 57, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate.Condition: This work is in very good condition. Very close inspection reveals some very minor wear in places to the upper edge. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultraviolet light.
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“I’m aware that in my work I am constantly trying to give very little information. I try to avoid a whole lot of things that could be seen as contemporary or relating to the facts that we know of society… because I want to have a very indirect approach in reflecting the world, or society, or a position.”

MICHAËL BORREMANS

John White, “The Unknowable Michaël Borremans Brings a Perverse Gravitas to Contemporary Painting,” Modern Painters, November 2011, p. 66


Executed in 2003, Michaël Borremans’ Prospects is an outstanding example of the artist’s unique painterly language that simultaneously captures his interest in a diversity of mediums and the construction of narrative through serial imagery. Characterised by a mysterious atmosphere that invokes the surrealism of fellow Belgian painter Rene Magritte, the present work is typical of Borremans’ imaginary set-ups that, whilst initially puzzling, seem to suggest a fascinating depth of narrative.

The two solemn-looking characters in Prospects are indeed highly suggestive, and evoke an atmosphere that seems staged and ambiguous – as in a movie scene set in the 1930s of 1940s. Quite evident in this painting is the artist’s interest in cinema and photography, which is articulated through the unusual crop –a typical compositional strategy for Borremans. The dark suits, hair style and the colour palette take us back to an earlier historical epoch and evoke a complex set of cinematic moods that are at once nostalgic, comical, and mysterious.

The importance of this unusual crop is more than a simple compositional device: “Throughout his oeuvre, and his experiments in all media, interlocking narrative and serial imagery have always been critical compositional strategies for Borremans. The unusual angles, close-ups, subdued palette, and secluded figures Borremans uses to compose his paintings may heighten a sense of the fragmentary or incomplete, creating a feeling of discomfort and unease, but they also connect logically to the visual language of film” (Exh. Cat., BOZAR, Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels (and travelling), Michaël Borremans: As sweet as it gets, February – August 2014, p. 13).

The cinematic mood that the unusual crop of Prospects creates, invokes a fragmentary sense of narrative that is at the very heart of a series of important works within the artist’s oeuvre, of which the present painting is one of the most accomplished examples. This series of works, begun in 2002, collectively traces the appearance of an imaginary construction through a series of interrelated images, executed in drawing, painting, sculpture and film –ending with the The House of Opportunity, an image executed in various compositions, different versions of which are held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the S.M.A.K. in Ghent.

The present work appears to be one of the earliest stages of this process, which is hinted at through the appearance of several small red objects that seem to be floating just above the table – and which appear to be the building blocks for The House of Opportunity. This imaginary construction, which Borremans situates in places like the Louvre, the countryside or as a sculptural object in his exhibitions, is connected by this formal element that suggests that the individually fragmented images are to be understood as part of a larger narrative.

This is where the artist’s practice, which to some extend is rooted in a historical mode of painting, becomes decidedly contemporary. The stream of interconnected images that permeates society in the 21st century is mirrored in Borremans’ complex narratives. As he explains: “These days, you can’t help being influenced by film and photography. Those disciplines have had such a far-reaching effect on the way we look at nature and reality. We have become used to seeing within frames. In the past, people had a larger periphery to their gaze” (Michael Borremans in conversation with Kurt Snoekx: ‘Michaël Borremans: As Sweet as it Gets,’ Bruzz, February 2014, online).

But the narrative of Prospects extends beyond the artist’s own oeuvre. Besides the surrealist painters that he is often compared with, there is a strong influence of old master painters –which in this painting is particularly pertinent. One can hardly ignore the visual similarities between Prospects and Borremans’ favourite painting, which he fondly discusses from a philosophical perspective on his own practice: “It only happens rarely, but when everything has gone perfectly in a painting, that really gives a kick. But that is very fragile, as if you were building a house of cards. Maybe that’s why Chardin’s The House of Cards is my favourite painting, come to think of it. Yes! That’s a really good metaphor: making a painting is like building a house of cards: it can collapse at any second” (ibid.).

The artist’s own The House of Opportunity and the series of related works could therefore be considered as a reflection on painting itself. The fragility in Prospects is hinted at by the fleeting presence of the floating red objects that its two enigmatic figures attempt to engage with. Perfectly capturing Michaël Borremans’ characteristic sense of mystery with a depth of fascinating narrative, this makes the present work an outstanding painting within his practice.