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hidden portraits
For the viewer, the focus in my modified pictures shifts away from being the expression of an individual and towards the integration of painting in a social context. The “Hidden Portraits” examine the context of art as a means of representation and the relationship between image and reproduction.
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NFT Collection
hidden portraits
Ten years in the making, Hidden Portraits reinterprets historical paintings through a modern lens. Using only elements from the original work, contemporary artist Volker Hermes visually manipulates famous Old Masters portraits, exploring expression when the face is obscured.
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NFT Collection
animalis poyledae
My collages are based on historical drawings of animals, either from early scientific expeditions or natural history studies. Using image processing, I transform individual parts of the drawn animal bodies into geometric shapes. In a final step, I combine the original drawing and the polyhedron to create a hybrid new animal.
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NFT Collection
academic studies
The historical drawings are pre-studies for paintings or exercises. I painted polyhedric forms as watercolors and inserted them in a digital collage as a head in the drawings. Previously pure geometric constructs, become emotionally charged when combined with studies of the human body.
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Rococo Madness! exhibtion
July 14, 2023 - January 14, 2024
Volker Hermes’ Hidden Portraits are featured in the group exhibition Rococo Madness! at the National Museum in Wroclaw, Poland.
The portraits of volker hermes
The artist behind a series of popular photocollages discusses the signs and symbols of portraiture.
Hidden Portraits
Playful and mischievous, Volker's Portraits capture the lively essence of historical style while shedding light on the role of fashion in historical portraiture.
History Revisited
Vouge Portugal's article featuring the Hidden Portraits of Volker Hermes.
Overly grand manners:
Volker Hermes Exaggerates Historical Portraits with Ostentatious Absurdity
The New York review of books
Hidden Jacometto graces the cover of the October, 2022 issue New York Review of Books.
suited, booted, convoluted
A collaboration with Hamish Bowles, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the National Gallery of Scottland. (April edition of The World of Interiors) Hermes was invited to create a Hidden Portrait from a Portrait of Charles Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont
by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
