Title of the Work of Art:

Portrait of Aby

Date of Creation:
2017

Genre:
Portrait
Period-Movement:
Neo Expressionism
Technique:
Painting
Materials:
Original digital artwork
Dimensions:
Not Stated


Artwork Description:
In the 2010s, Nicholaas Chiao conceived a series of unauthorized portraits based on snapshots of art collectors from ArtNews' Top 100 Art Collectors list. Only the most successful of those paintings remained; the artist destroyed the rest. This painting depicts a man's face on a black background, Baconesque and somewhat reminiscent of a man beaten to the pulp. Chiao’s willingness to engage in unauthorized portraiture reflects his personal inclination to challenge boundaries and question accepted norms, a tendency rooted in his own experiences navigating societal and artistic constraints. Considering that people were not eager to be subjects in such an experimental approach to portraiture without their consent, this personal risk-taking led to the destruction of nearly all such works, leaving no memory of the experiment beyond those few that survived.