Michaël Borremans - whistling a happy tune

More about the book

This monograph offers the first survey of Belgian painter Michaël Borremans' drawings. Like the paintings, the drawings favor absurd fragmentary figures that inhabit an indeterminate time. Because of Borremans' drab palate, these figures dwell in a gloomy universe that only heightens the uncanny subject matter. Critic David Coggins has noted, "Michaël Borremans' portraits of somber young men, elusively posed before muted backgrounds, create a tone of uncertainty that becomes a virtue, not an evasion. Working both large and small, he grounds his paintings (all oil on canvas) in traditional Realism, achieving finely rendered details, soft light and surfaces that are delicate and painterly." The drawings envelop viewers in a similarly surreal, ambiguous and unreliable universe, depicted with a subdued combination of pencil, watercolor, ballpoint, white ink and coffee washes. They make use of newspapers, books, magazines and turn-of-the-century photographic archives as source material. This volume includes an essay by critic and art historian Michael Amy. Borremans is represented in New York by David Zwirner.