At first glance, the portraits by the hand of Annemarie Busschers (1970) appear to be enormous photographs. It’s only once you get close, right up to the portrait’s ‘skin’, that doubt sets in: this is virtuoso handiwork in an exceedingly delicate, graphic, mixed technique. Eagle-eyed viewers will s
...ee that wool has also been used in the jacket. Busschers’ portrait of Bram is an homage to her father, who posed for the work.
Busschers’ works often emphasise the model’s skin. She studies the ageing process on photographs: textures, shades, moles, scars, furrows and veins are deliberately emphasised and enlarged in the final work. Busschers is fascinated by ageing, and wants to show the singularity and beauty of the process. As such, she depicted her father as older than he actually was at the time.
This so-called Verism (an artistic preference that focuses on a muted rendering of reality) stands at odds with the age-long tradition of embellishment and idealisation in portraiture. In her later work, Busschers also attempts to get under the skin of her models, incorporating personal, mental and psychological imperfections in her portraits.
Text: Boris Ariaens, guide and museum hostAt first glance, the portraits by the hand of Annemarie Busschers (1970) appear to be enormous photographs. It’s only once you get close, right up to the portrait’s ‘skin’, that doubt sets in: this is virtuoso handiwork in an exceedingly delicate, graphic, mixed technique. Eagle-eyed viewers will see that wool has also been used in the jacket. Busschers’ portrait of Bram is an homage to her father, who posed for the work.
Busschers’ works often emphasise the model’s skin. She studies the ageing process on photographs: textures, shades, moles, scars, furrows and veins are deliberately emphasised and enlarged in the final work. Busschers is fascinated by ageing, and wants to show the singularity and beauty of the process. As such, she depicted her father as older than he actually was at the time.
This so-called Verism (an artistic preference that focuses on a muted rendering of reality) stands at odds with the age-long tradition of embellishment and idealisation in portraiture. In her later work, Busschers also attempts to get under the skin of her models, incorporating personal, mental and psychological imperfections in her portraits.
Text: Boris Ariaens, guide and museum host