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Since the Bauhaus, the term ‘precious’ has had a negative connotation in art schools. It was a term used derisively in the ’60s to describe… |
Since the Bauhaus, the term ‘precious’ has had a negative connotation in art schools. It was a term used derisively in the ’60s to describe work that did not adhere to the fashionably pared down kernels of conceptualism or minimalism. But after seeing the beauty, sensitivity, harmony–the ‘preciousness’– of Italian Renaissance painting–especially the early Renaissance work of artists such as Fra Angelico, Duccio and Simone Martini—Fred Wessel realized that, “as artists, we may have abandoned too much”.
He works with egg tempera and gold leaf in the methods described by 14th century painter Cennino Cennini. He looks to the early Renaissance as a source of inspiration that he can use along with contemporary content and image making. He looks to the Renaissance as the artists of that time looked back to early Greek and Roman art– not as a reactionary but as one who rediscovers and reapplies important but forgotten visual stimuli.
