About Hernan Bas and his art

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Text written by Patricia Ellis

Hernan Bas explores the language of dandyism and subculture as a means to define sexual attraction. Bas's paintings are tinged with nihilist romanticism, born of literary intrigue and a passion for historical painting. His works are small, frail and sensuously delightful. Through their unassuming intimacy, they contrive elaborate fantasies concerned with the ephemera and gentilities of seduction. Bas's bittersweet subject matter ranges from Greek mythology to contemporary genre painting, and are always derived from his connoisseur's predilection for the poetic and empyreal. Suggestive of the melodramatic narratives of classic film, his scenes conjure up thoughts of gothic malaise and the trepidation of first love.

Bas situates his characters amidst the turbulence of adolescence. Their sensuality is expressed through an aura of naiveté, emanating from scenes of roughhouse play or quiet repose. Bas portrays emotional isolation as a symptom of social engagement, a reflection of the awkwardness of budding sexuality and an awareness of difference. Bas's paintings are never explicit; rather his dreamy images exist as metaphors for emotional flux. Wavering between virginal anxiety and gushy infatuation, they capture precise moments of seasonal youth.

Greatly influenced and inspired by the decadent writing of Wilde and Huysmans, his style of painting emulates linguistic flourish. Impassioned brushwork and pastel hues bloom with poetic description, whilst environments are set with the divine ambience of pathetic fallacy. Confined by a historical sense of etiquette, Bas's figures gracefully allude to darker inclinations; their posed innocence a thin veil of gentlemanly decorum.

Embracing the sentimental, Bas's figures convey overwhelming emotions as an internalised sensation. Bas masterfully portrays the graceful masking of social gaff, the lustful harbouring of desire, or the stiff-lipped retention of hurt feelings. Through refined skill of drawing and measured composition, Bas develops a psychologically charged context for painting where dramatic excess knows no bounds.

HERNAN BAS

About Hernan Bas and his art