Fantastical World of Karen Kilimnik
Winter in Kiev, 2002
“One should sympathize
with the joy,
the beauty,
the color of life.
The less said
about life’s sores
the better.”It seems as though Lord Illingworth’s words in Oscar Wilde’s fin-de-siècle drama A Woman of No Importance had traveled through time to manifest themselves in the work of Karen Kilimnik. For the dandy Oscar Wilde, beauty was synonymous with genius. For the artist Karen Kilimnik, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
The Snow Queen’s sleigh, 2007
Her art conjures up associations of nostalgia and decadence. In her works, she creates idealized images of bygone times, only to then dismantle them just as quickly.
In an exhibition at Sprüth Magers in Cologne, Kilimnik for example, she showcased the Snow Queen’s Sleigh: a photographic work depicting a winter forest with a glittering sleigh piled high with presents.
To complement this magical setting, the artist, in a moment of inspiration, constructed a perfectly landscaped snowy birch forest in the adjoining gallery rooms to give visitors the impression of being in a winter wonderland.
A hint of dolce far niente imbued another of Kilimnik’s exhibition at the London Gallery Sprüth Magers in the summer of 2007, when she hung her paintings on pink striped walls that startlingly recalled the dressing tents on the beaches of the Lido during the turn of the 19th century. Again, one could almost smell the salt air.
Sugarplume Fairyland
Kilimnik is recognized for paintings that combine art historical tradition, modish topicality, and an awkward intimacy and fragility. The works also draw on literary traditions of gothic mystery and fairy tales, presenting narratives that unfold over the course of a series of related paintings.
Snow White, 2004
The artist has said of her work:
“Being so inspired by fairy tales, mysteries, books, TV shows and ballets etc. I like to make up characters myself as if I’m a playwright and these are characters and scenes I invented or observed… So I’ll see a picture of someone or something in a photo or a painting and cast them in my so-called play as a character I’ve made up or sometimes borrowed.”
Prince Charming, 1998
Small oil paintings of pop culture figures such as Snow White and Leonardo DiCaprio, are swirled into classical settings and displayed salon-style in a parlor room constructed in the gallery complete with damask wallpaper and a settee.
Planning the Attack of Malta, the Mastermind, 2001
Kilimnik’s voluptuous, sometimes almost kitschy images could easily be misunderstood as being reactionary, a flight into a pre-modern, presumably better time.
The Castle Great Staircase, Scotland (2007)
She paints sumptuous country estates in lush parks, a carriage decorated with violet feathers that rattles down London’s magnificent boulevard The Mall, or 5 o’clock tea in the very respectable atmosphere of a British hotel.
The Royal Little Red Riding Hood, 2007
During the romantic era, artists created wonderfully dramatic works from precisely this flight impulse.
Ragley Hall-Tour of England , 2000
Perhaps the theme that best conveys Kilimnik’s art is that of longing. Her paintings remind one of the famous statement of Henry James, who once declared that for him "summer" and "afternoon" were the two most beautiful words in the English language.
The Perch, 2003
It's as though the artist were pining after a distinguished and decadent life feeling of an upper class that today is becoming more and more forgotten.
For more on Karen Kilimnik’s work: db artmag
Wonderful post. I love your description of her work as longing and nostalgia. There is something about the “simpleness” of her work that imbues it with great feelings of loss and memory.
I think I’m in love
lovely.
and
happy new year!