Pablo Bronstein- Hell in its Heyday

What is the artist making their work about?

Pablo Bronstein presents his unique, seductive and deeply ironic vision of hell. He creates a vision of the underworld which is enticing and ultimately unsettling. He invites us to tour hell imagines as a monumental city.

What are their interests and how may they feed into the work?

He is both fascinated and repelled by the subject of his drawings. He says, “how do you represent stuff which you know is morally dubious, or corrupt, or evil but which still has extraordinary beauty to it?” His work explores themes of queer identity, consumerism, architecture. His dense, theatrical compositions draw from a range of sources, including mannerist sculpture, commedia dell’arte, the circus, early advertising posters and television.

Bronstein took particular inspiration from the work of Joseph Gandy, (Sir John Soanes collaborator) who’s visions on pandemonium based on John Miltons poem Paradise Lost, seethe with an equal level of tortured overabundance.

What is the overall context of the work?

The artist has depicted his idea of what life would be like in hell, its a reinterpretation of the nineteenth and twentieth century glorification of technological and economic advancement. Not a traditional hell as such but a bombastic cityscape in which the now misplaced optimism in ‘progress’ is drawn as a hyperbole. All depictions of hell are ultimately allegorical, and this cycle fits into that tradition, but it is an ironic vision with appearance of an early advertising campaign.

How does the artist use their imagery?

As we tour hells banquets, casinos, cinemas shopping centres and gardens it seems that all desires can be satisfied. Even hells mines and factories drip with luxurious, baroque ornament. The works can be viewed as surrealist in a way as he has juxtaposed things like cakes with helicopters and fairies with hot air balloons. Everything is big, bold and colourful in his large scale paintings.

What history is attached to them?

Pablo Bronstein chose the Sir John Soanes museum as a venue for this exhibition as its rooms have lots of antique furniture and ornaments and its walls are filled with similarly epic drawings of architectural fantasies that induce both wonder and horror. The artists decided to make his work in parallel to the museum rather than directly about it. The works present Satan’s realm in the style of the late 19th century advertising posters, imagined as a showcase city strewn with garish monuments worthy of the most tasteless dictator. This body of work presents the last two centuries of technological and economic enhancement through a nostalgic but also deeply ironic filter. Bronstein highlights the misplaced optimism in ideas of ‘progress’ which characterised the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In this he has created a world that is both seductive and deeply unsettling.

How do they use colour, light, create a positive and negative space in their works?

The works are very colourful, they include colours that don’t necessarily work together making them overwhelming and at times unpleasant to look at. Bronstein creates areas of light in his work by revealing some of the white paper from underneath or by creating lighter washes of watercolour in warm tones. There are usually multiple main focus points in his works- they are very busy and full of character, the negative space is usually the background which tends to compliment the colours of the objects/ figures in the positive space.

What kind of surface and materials do they use?

He uses ink, watercolour, and pencil on paper for all the pieces in this exhibition. The media and style of work makes them appear very poster like which is what the artist clearly wanted to achieve (late nineteenth century advertising posters). He has applied the watercolour quite densely and thickly to create saturated colours which makes the works very bold- they really stand out.

How are the works exhibited?

They are exhibited in frames inside glass cabinets, which although is possibly the museums attempt to protect the work from damage, it adds to the antique and circus - like appearance of the work where one can look but not touch.

how does seeing the exhibition help you understand your own practice?

It has helped me to realise that I don’t often step outside my comfort zone and into the depths of my imagination in my work, this is something I’d like to do more in my future work.

Part 2: fine art painting specialism

Part 2: fine art painting specialism

Part 2: specialist painting primer

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