Hernan Bas

Infused with a sense of unspoken longing and anticipation, Hernan Bas’ intimate, dreamy visions explore the language and mysticism of sexual attraction with a romantic nostalgia. Their bittersweet subject matter ranges from Greek mythology to contemporary genre painting and is suggestive of the melodramatic suspense of classic film and literature. Greatly influenced and inspired by the decadent writings of Oscar Wilde and Joris-Karl Huysmans, Bas’ mercurial style of painting emulates their linguistic flourish and exists as metaphor for emotional flux.

In Untitled and Untitled (3 Boys), Bas situates his characters amidst timeless landscapes of quietly brooding repose. Small, ethereal and sensuously delightful, their veiled, aqueous surfaces seem to slide and recoil across the luxurious vellum with tender complication. The compositions’ underlying turbulence and sense of emotional isolation suggests the awkwardness of the figures’ budding sexuality and their awareness of their individuality. His impassioned brushwork and pastel hues bloom with poetic description whilst the environments described are cast with the divine ambience of pathetic fallacy. Confined by their historical sense of etiquette, Bas's figures gracefully allude to darker inclinations; their posed innocence a thin veil of gentlemanly decorum.