UNTITLED I 2009 I New work, commissioned by Contour 2009
Buckingham’s work invites the viewers to experience history and its constructive methods, as well as to feel its proximity to the present. The artist’s contribution to Contour looks at the topics of biography and self-portraiture through the life and work of one of the most famous Flemish artists of the 16th century, Caterina van Hemessen, one of the few female artists of her time. In Buckingham’s project van Hemessen’s self-portrait of 1548 is viewed from the perspective of the present day. Her image hails the viewer and synchronizes, for a moment, our time with hers.
MATTHEW BUCKINGHAM (USA/°1963)
Buckingham’s work is rooted in historical investigation and in exploring how history is both constructed and narrated. He has exhibited widely all over the world including at the MoMA, New York, the Hamburger Banhof, Berlin, and Whitechapel Art Gallery, London. This summer Buckingham has a retrospective exhibition at the Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid.
HEMESSEN, Caterina van (1527-1566)
Self portrait, 1548
Oil on canvas
Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel