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Lot Essay
“A lot of my work [is about] having a curiosity about everything, and a lot of that curiosity lends itself to mysteries of unknown and the paranormal world.” Hernan Bas (H. Bas, quoted by K. Abbey-Lambertz, “Hernan Bas, Painter, Talks Growing Up In Haunted Florida, Working In Detroit”, The Huffington Post, April 11, 2012).
Melding fantastical natural worlds with memories from his youth, Hernan Bas constructs enthralling tableaus that speak to ideas of nostalgia, wonder, and the paranormal. Tartini’s Dream (The Devil’s Trill) is a densely layered canvas that highlights the artist’s ability to coax intrigue and an absorptive narrative out of an intricate landscape. Growing up in north Florida, the marshlands and tangled foliage were an integral part of the artist’s childhood, and their brooding mystery is infused in works like the present example. “A lot of my work [is about] having a curiosity about everything, and a lot of that curiosity lends itself to mysteries of unknown and the paranormal world” (H. Bas, quoted by K. Abbey-Lambertz, “Hernan Bas, Painter, Talks Growing Up In Haunted Florida, Working In Detroit”, The Huffington Post, April 11, 2012). Tapping into the haunting unknown of the dark forest and pairing it with references to the supernatural, Bas is able to create paintings that balance contemporary concerns with historical richness.
Tartini’s Dream is a monumental composition that envelops the viewer into its densely packed foreground. Piles of upended stumps and spider-like logs seem to float in a marsh made of vaporous paint and dripping, expressive areas of color. Visually enthralling, each construction is reminiscent of both piled driftwood and a burst of energy, its tendrils expanding outward from the center only to dive back into the painterly depths. The background is rendered in multifaceted hues of deep purple, smoldering orange, murky aqua, silver, and crimson which makes the gold, copper, and bright yellow of the tumbling limbs stand out all the more starkly. Barely visible within this tangle are two figures. Closer to the foreground, a boy in green sits languidly on a log, his forehead pressed against a fist as he slumps into repose. In the back, a young man in a reddish shirt plays the violin. He raises the instrument up as if trying to project his tune toward his companion further afield. The connection between the two creates a succinct scene where a story is being told but the viewer is not yet privy to the subject. “I do like the idea that everything is contained—the entire narrative, within the frame of the canvas; but paintings that I consider to be successful are always on the verge of falling apart. To me, that’s the fun of it—the imminent collapse, and also the challenge.” (H. Bas, quoted in S. Margolis-Pineo, “Against Nature: An Interview with Hernan Bas,” Art 21, December 27, 2019). Bas’s composition is on the verge of breaking through the borders of the canvas, yet it is reined in by the frozen moment between the two men at its center.
Herman Bas takes the title of the present example from a work of music by the early eighteenth century Italian composer and violinist Giuseppe Tartini. Perhaps his most famous work, his “Violin Sonata in G Minor” is mostly commonly referred to as “The Devil’s Trill Sonata”. Characterized by its technical difficulty, it was said to have arisen from a dream Tartini had. The devil appeared to him, a wandering violinist, and asked to be taught. After just moments, the devil deftly created a spellbinding and magnificent composition which he played for Tartini – leaving him breathless, melancholic. The musician awoke with an intense motivation to record this complex and extraordinary tune.
It is not difficult to see why this story would have been so inspirational for Bas. Tartini's attempts to match the magnificence of the 'Devil's Trill' is a beguiling metaphor for every artists pursuit of the perfect artwork. The ultimate composition is always tantalizingly visible in the creator's mind, yet, just out of reach. And indeed, this broader interest in tales of the supernatural and paranormal is key to an understanding of Bas’s oeuvre, as is the knowledge of his adolescence in Florida. Drawing upon these two elements in the present example, the artist creates perplexing arrangements of trees that resemble synapses bursting with information. Trying desperately to remember the formative experiences of his past and fuse them with new energy, Bas covers his surface in intricate detail like Tartini grasping at the fading threads of his dream.
Melding fantastical natural worlds with memories from his youth, Hernan Bas constructs enthralling tableaus that speak to ideas of nostalgia, wonder, and the paranormal. Tartini’s Dream (The Devil’s Trill) is a densely layered canvas that highlights the artist’s ability to coax intrigue and an absorptive narrative out of an intricate landscape. Growing up in north Florida, the marshlands and tangled foliage were an integral part of the artist’s childhood, and their brooding mystery is infused in works like the present example. “A lot of my work [is about] having a curiosity about everything, and a lot of that curiosity lends itself to mysteries of unknown and the paranormal world” (H. Bas, quoted by K. Abbey-Lambertz, “Hernan Bas, Painter, Talks Growing Up In Haunted Florida, Working In Detroit”, The Huffington Post, April 11, 2012). Tapping into the haunting unknown of the dark forest and pairing it with references to the supernatural, Bas is able to create paintings that balance contemporary concerns with historical richness.
Tartini’s Dream is a monumental composition that envelops the viewer into its densely packed foreground. Piles of upended stumps and spider-like logs seem to float in a marsh made of vaporous paint and dripping, expressive areas of color. Visually enthralling, each construction is reminiscent of both piled driftwood and a burst of energy, its tendrils expanding outward from the center only to dive back into the painterly depths. The background is rendered in multifaceted hues of deep purple, smoldering orange, murky aqua, silver, and crimson which makes the gold, copper, and bright yellow of the tumbling limbs stand out all the more starkly. Barely visible within this tangle are two figures. Closer to the foreground, a boy in green sits languidly on a log, his forehead pressed against a fist as he slumps into repose. In the back, a young man in a reddish shirt plays the violin. He raises the instrument up as if trying to project his tune toward his companion further afield. The connection between the two creates a succinct scene where a story is being told but the viewer is not yet privy to the subject. “I do like the idea that everything is contained—the entire narrative, within the frame of the canvas; but paintings that I consider to be successful are always on the verge of falling apart. To me, that’s the fun of it—the imminent collapse, and also the challenge.” (H. Bas, quoted in S. Margolis-Pineo, “Against Nature: An Interview with Hernan Bas,” Art 21, December 27, 2019). Bas’s composition is on the verge of breaking through the borders of the canvas, yet it is reined in by the frozen moment between the two men at its center.
Herman Bas takes the title of the present example from a work of music by the early eighteenth century Italian composer and violinist Giuseppe Tartini. Perhaps his most famous work, his “Violin Sonata in G Minor” is mostly commonly referred to as “The Devil’s Trill Sonata”. Characterized by its technical difficulty, it was said to have arisen from a dream Tartini had. The devil appeared to him, a wandering violinist, and asked to be taught. After just moments, the devil deftly created a spellbinding and magnificent composition which he played for Tartini – leaving him breathless, melancholic. The musician awoke with an intense motivation to record this complex and extraordinary tune.
It is not difficult to see why this story would have been so inspirational for Bas. Tartini's attempts to match the magnificence of the 'Devil's Trill' is a beguiling metaphor for every artists pursuit of the perfect artwork. The ultimate composition is always tantalizingly visible in the creator's mind, yet, just out of reach. And indeed, this broader interest in tales of the supernatural and paranormal is key to an understanding of Bas’s oeuvre, as is the knowledge of his adolescence in Florida. Drawing upon these two elements in the present example, the artist creates perplexing arrangements of trees that resemble synapses bursting with information. Trying desperately to remember the formative experiences of his past and fuse them with new energy, Bas covers his surface in intricate detail like Tartini grasping at the fading threads of his dream.