René Crevel

Accession Number
2015/2.29

Title
René Crevel

Artist(s)
Robert Priseman

Artist Nationality
British (modern)

Object Creation Date
2013

Medium & Support
oil and acrylic on panel

Dimensions
6 ⅞ in x 4 ¾ in (17.46 cm x 12.07 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of the artist

Subject matter
This portrait of French Surrealist writer René Crevel comes from Priseman's "FAME" series of 100 portraits. Pointing to a connection between violence and the sacred, each of the subjects in this series came to a premature death; Crevel committed suidice at the age of 35. The portraits are painted on religious icons, which the artist purchased from e-bay. At the same time, the religious figures literally overlap with celebrities, who he sees as the modern-day saints. Priseman both paints these new "icons" and participates in a kind of iconoclasm, in the material and the metaphorical sense. The portrait of Crevel literally erases that of the saint behind. At the same time, Crevel had particiapted in his own kind of iconoclasm by taking his own life. 

Physical Description
At the cener of this panel, there is a portrait bust of a man painted over another image of a figure. The man stares directly out at the viewer; he has short brown hair and wears a blue shirt. Only the top of the forehead and a little of the clothing at the bottom are visible of the figure beneath. The panel is rough, covered with a thin layer for grey paint, and covered in nails and nail holes.

Primary Object Classification
Painting

Primary Object Type
portrait

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
Surrealist
icons (devotional images)
novelists
panel paintings (paintings by form)
portraits
suicides

2 Related Resources

Montage and Collage
(Part of 3 Learning Collections)
Acting on Art - artistic processes / copying, erasing, assembling, breaking
(Part of: F20 Gear - HISTART 194 - Acting on Art in Renaissance Italy)

& Author Notes

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