Andrew Bracey: Art Treasures of the World

About

Andrew Bracey has been making a ReconFigure Painting on each page of the book, Art Treasures of the World over the last two years. ReconFigure Paintings are an ongoing series of work that features parasitic, painted additions to the ‘host’ humans that exist within historical figurative paintings.

'ReconFigure Paintings' is an ongoing series of work where Bracey primarily works on reproductions of oil paintings, each varying in style, period and type of figuration - that have been worked over with geometric/crystalline paintwork. The triangle is used as the simplest shape that can create a complex structure. The eye alternates between his contemporary addition and the background of the original, something that is usually sidelined by the dominant figure. Despite a consistency of rules adopted when painting, each work takes on its own unique character and alter the viewers perception of the original source.

The artist’s intention is to strip the subject of the work back to painting itself; by appropriating masterpieces and some lesser-known from the medium’s past in order to create new works, he is simultaneously challenging, applauding and being daunted by them. The size of each original ReconFigure Painting correlates with different forms of reproductions sourced from gallery shops such as postcards, prints and pages from catalogues. Within his work Bracey questions the role of the original, the reproduction (in print, online or in a catalogue for example) and exhibition display.