Surreal desert excavation scene featuring a monumental statue of Bettie Page under restoration, surrounded by scaffolding, workers, vehicles, and surreal elements like a floating red figure and oversized camel head.

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Surreal desert scene with a monumental seated woman sculpture under restoration, holding a child, surrounded by scaffolding, workers, vehicles, and surreal elements like a floating red figure and oversized camel head. Presented in a sleek black frame mockup.
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The Restoration of Bettie Page – 01-04-20

An Archeological Memory

This oil painting ‘The Restoration of Bettie Page – 01-04-20’ is a project that cost me 2 years to complete. An artwork that says it all. In November 2018 I started this project after a prestudy in graphite ‘An archeological memory of Bettie Page – 13-11-18’. Done after Salvador Dali’s painting ‘Archeological reminiscence of Millet’s Angelus’ I already knew for a very long time. It appealed to me because of the idea of a comtemporary situation set back as a remnant of eras gone by.

Upscaling

Obviously the canvas size of this painting is bigger than the original drawing. Therefor the balance between main theme (camel, statue and stele) and the negative space around it should show more coherence. It just felt not right to leave a lot of space while main theme was to be portrayed so lavisly.

Jan van Eyck

I always have been an admirer or Jan van Eyck’s ‘The Madonna of Chancellor Rolin’. That is the main reason to add an abundancy of details in this one as well. See if I can match the quality of old master’s work. In general I could state that in this painting i tried to employ all my knowledge and techniques. Jan van Eyck could have stated: “Als Ich Can”. Obviously I can relate to that most ardently.

Diagonals

The arrangement of the sphinx and stele were pretty much horizontal whereas the statue puts the stress on verticality. It worked just fine in the drawing, resembling the way egyptian art has been executed in the first place. All side stories were connected to eachother across diagonal lines of attention. I put myself on the stele and put a vanishing point between my eyes, placing the spectator in my shoes. All elements – camp, arm, stele, bomb squad car, lift, scaffolding- converge toward a single vanishing point. These diagonals balance out all things horizontal and vertical.

Explanatory Remarks

For some time I hesitated to put down explanatory remarks as there is nothing worse than explaining a good joke. However I put in so many details making sense only to me as an artist as the story grew inside my mind. Hence some keywords to boggle your minds: Dali, the military, Bettie Burger and cloaks & daggers

Oil on wood panel (85 x 120 x 0.9 cm)

Artist: Corné Akkers

Sales info: info@corneakkers.com

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