Sunday Evening Art Gallery — Volker Hermes

Volker Hermes (-1972) is internationally artist renowned for his ‘Hidden Portraits’ that make digital interventions into historical portrait paintings.Hermes revisits historical portraits by incorporating diverted ornaments inspired by costumes from the 16th to the 19th century, which invade the picture.Taking textures and patterns from within the antique image, he creates masks and new adornments that obscure the sitters’ faces and in the process sheds new insight on how fashion functions in historical imagery.Volker’s ‘Hidden Portraits’ are playful and mischievous; they delight in the sensory exuberance of historical dress.For the last decade, Hermes has used digital-imaging software to manipulate classic portraits from museum collections around the world.The entire face is covered by an absurd mask, piled-up fabric or a ceremonial wig. But nothing is added to the paintings. All the changes come from within the original itself.Hermes’s meticulously described collages pay homage to their sources while gently ribbing the social pretensions and ambitions of the courtly classes.His practice plays with the limits of perception and tenderly mocks human folly, whether it’s the desire to capture and tame the natural world or to flaunt the latest fashions.More of Volker Hermes surreal paintings can be found at https://www.hermes.art/.