Sebastian Bieniek - Fascination No. 37

Sold with certificate of authenticity .

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THE WORK OF ART:

For sale is a portrait photograph overpainted by the artist in 2014, which is part of his "Fascination series", consisting only of overpainted paintings and overpainted photographs ( unique piece ).

The original photo is an original photograph from 1950.

Signed by hand on the back of the photograph. Titled and stamped on the back. Stamp, title, and signature also on the front of the passe-partout.

FRAMED (in a real wood frame and passe-partout)

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The series “Fascination” by Berlin-based artist Sebastian Bieniek plays on ideas of guardian angels and fate in connection with the tragic lot of people and aims to create a window between two worlds such as “here and there” or “now and then” and to build a unity in the form of a person from it.

The “self” thus exists for the artist on two levels: a realistic level and a meta-level, which is linked to ideas of guardian angels and fate – and in a broader sense, to the world itself.

The work thus takes up the ancient, universal concept of a world divided into two parts – for example in the distinction between “ancestors and the living”, “humans and gods” or “software and hardware”, which is ultimately nothing other than a separation into “idea and body” or “command and deed”.

In his work, Bieniek seeks a visible form for both – and thus for the whole.

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THE ARTIST:

The artist Sebastian Bieniek was born in Poland in 1975. He studied art at the Braunschweig University of Art (HbK Braunschweig) and the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK Berlin) under Marina Abramovic, John M. Armleder, and Katharina Sieverding. From 1998 to 2000, he was a member of the "Kunsthaus Tacheles" (a squatted house) in Berlin, then known as the "artistic center of the city," where he shared a studio with the artist Chiharu Shiota. Thus, in the late 1990s, he belonged to Berlin's anarchic post-reunification art scene, and as a student of Sieverding, who in turn was a student of Joseph Beuys, he stands in the Beuysian tradition of subversive and critical art.

In the late 1990s, Bieniek became known for his drastic actions and conceptual art. Later, he studied film directing and made films. From 2008 onwards, he painted again, and by 2013 at the latest, he had become world-famous for his paintings and photographs with ambivalent statements and depictions, which, in his opinion, reflect the transition from a monopolar to a multipolar world, resulting, among other things, in a post-truth reality.

The culmination of this artistic exploration – spanning thirty years so far – (with a world without truths) is his staging of his own death and resurrection in 2022 as an artistic statement on post-factual reality.

The artist's wide reach, influence and fame can be deduced from the fact that, for example, in 2014 pop stars such as the American musician Pharrell Williams featured a work by Bieniek several times in his hit video "Marylin Monroe" and even the singer Madonna contacted Bieniek in 2016 (article in Vogue Spain) and asked him to design the cover for her "X" album.
In 2015, French designer Simon Porte Jacquemus had his models walk the runway at Paris Fashion Week with faces personally painted by Bieniek, winning the prestigious LVMH Special Jury Prize presented by Karl Lagerfeld. Also in 2015, The Culture Trip Magazine named Sebastian Bieniek one of the "Top 5 Influential Contemporary Berlin-Based Artists".
Since then, Bieniek's work has appeared in the world's most important magazines, such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, Interview Magazine, Süddeutsche Zeitung, BILD, Newsweek, The Guardian, Elle, Marie Claire, and on German, Chinese, Japanese, and European (arte) television. In 2022, the American broadcaster HBO wanted to produce a documentary about Bieniek, but the artist politely declined.