Anne von Freyburg | Violets Are Blue, the Mirror is You

In her debut at K Contemporary, Anne von Freyburg, a UK-based artist, celebrates textiles and ornamental pleasures in a painterly way. Within the tradition of Rococo painting, she rethinks fiber and the decorative by creating opulent, irregularly shaped wall hangings that disguise Fragonard- and Boucher-like figures in an orgy of vinyl, acrylic ink, spray paint, hand-embroidery, and self-dyed fringe.  She harnesses the period’s excesses, while toying with the sexual politics of the gaze, the feminine, and the pretty. The idea of the Rococo portrait translated into contemporary fashion fabrics references cultures -- past and present -- obsessed by image, the body, and appearance. The work is a nod to the idea of constructed beauty in technique and ideology. 

Von Freyburg explains, “My work can be read as a comment on unmoderated, consumerist behavior and self-indulgence. In general, I am interested in the constructs behind femininity and art historical Western beauty. Like fiber art and craft, the Rococo period has been marginalized because of its feminine and frivolous subjects and appearance. That's why I want to let a Rococo painting have a dialogue with textiles.” 

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