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Fred Wessel
"Fritillaria Imperialis" (2023) By Fred Wessel, Egg Tempera/Gold Leaf Painting

2023

$9,500
£7,096.05
€8,226.73
CA$13,190.51
A$14,784.87
CHF 7,698.05
MX$180,529.55
NOK 97,737.22
SEK 92,646.09
DKK 61,380.34
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About the Item

Fred Wessel's "Fritillaria Imperialis" is a stunning egg tempera painting on gold leaf. Created in 2023, this piece features a stem of Fritillaria Imperialis, resting in an ornate gold leaf design. A decorative band made to look like stone stretches across the lower end of the painting. This piece is encased in a beautiful ornately designed dark wooden frame. About the artist: A two week trip that I took to Italy in 1984, had a profound and prolonged influence on my work. At that time I was involved in making a series of aquarium images. I went to Italy to view the art of the Renaissance, for it is my belief that all visual artists, especially realists, should experience and study this work firsthand. I could not have predicted the dramatic impact, both direct and indirect, that this journey of discovery would have on my ensuing work. I believe that in our search for novelty in post-modernist art making, we often lose touch with certain basics: beauty, grace, harmony and visual poetry are nowadays rarely considered important criteria in evaluating contemporary works of art. Since the Bauhaus, the term ‘precious’ has had a negative connotation in art schools. It was a term used derisively in the 1960’s to describe work that did not adhere to the fashionably pared down kernels of conceptualism or minimalism. But after seeing the beauty, sensitivity, harmony—the ‘preciousness’—of Italian Renaissance painting—especially the early Renaissance work of artists such as Fra Angelico, Duccio and Simone Martini—I realize that, as artists, we may have abandoned too much. The ever–changing inner light that radiates from gold leaf used judiciously on the surface of a painting, and the use of pockets of rich, intense colors that illuminate the picture’s surface impressed me deeply. It was ‘preciousness’ elevated to grand heights: semi–precious gems such as lapis lazuli, malachite, azurite, etc., were ground up, mixed with egg yolk and applied as paint pigments, producing dazzling, breathtaking colors! The surface of these colors forms a texture that sparkles and reflects light much like gold does, but in ways that are much more subtle than gold. I look to the early Renaissance as a source of inspiration that I can use along with contemporary content and image making. I look to the Renaissance as the artists of that time looked back to early Greek and Roman art—not as a reactionary but as one who rediscovers and reapplies important but forgotten visual stimuli.

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Fred Wessel's "Dahlia Icon" is a stunning egg tempera painting on gold leaf with coral cabochons. Created in 2021, this piece features a freshly bloomed stem of a white lily flower, ...
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"West Hartford Canna" (2022) By Fred Wessel, Egg Tempera Painting on Gold Leaf
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Fred Wessel's "West Hartford Canna" is a stunning egg tempera painting on gold leaf. Created in 2022, this piece features a beautiful single stem of an orange Canna Hybrida lily, among its large leaves and stem. Painted underneath is a Victorian stone...
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"Orange Lily - Purple Vase" (2022) By Fred Wessel, Egg Tempera Painting
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Fred Wessel's "Orange Lily - Purple Vase" is a stunning egg tempera painting on gold leaf. Created in 2022, this piece features a beautiful single orange lily, fully bloomed, in a de...
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"Little Iris Icon" (2022) By Fred Wessel, Egg Tempera on Gold Leaf Painting
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Fred Wessel's "White Orchid" is a stunning egg tempera painting on gold leaf. Created in 2023, this piece features a blooming branch of white orchids, resting over a deep red backgro...
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