Old Masters New Mistresses RE:DRAWN: School of Fontainbleu Collage

am starting to work on the female form again, and in this new work, re-drawing, re-imaging, re-representing or “vandalising” old masters studies of the female. The work is created from graphite, biro, spray paint, neon acrylic paint and collaged papers – the collage includes photographed graffiti, tattoos, jewellery and bodyparts cut out from the models of adult/porn magazines, and MAC lipstick together with pigment and Inktense. The works are varnished and set within a bespoke gloss white frame with very broad white mount, to allow the work to project from the wall. Rather than transcribe the old masters, I wished to “vandalise” them in order to bring them to 2017 London. So rather than looking at 16th century female nudes as depicted by the School of Fontainbleu, you're looking at two modern-day London girls. The work also raises questions about class, the status of women in today's society (as then) and street style. Rather than the possible cliche of giving old paintings new life, a new voice, in choosing to re-present these images, an artist in effect "silences" the old ones, overwriting their original intentions. In effect, these new updated mistresses have taken control of the original old master works. Size shown here (54 x 48 cm) includes overall bespoke mount/frame (gloss white), actual image dimensions (not including the frame) 31 x 25 cm.