ART-PRESENTATION: Mark Ryden-The Art of Whipped Cream
Fusing popular culture with skills reminiscent of the old masters, Mark Ryden creates artworks that blur the lines between high and low. His work first garnered attention in the ‘90s when his new genre of painting, “Lowbrow” or “Pop Surrealism”, gained currency. His subject matter has many sources for inspiration and melds ritualized spectacle with consumer objects, creating tableaus loaded with cultural connotation both historical and contemporary.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Paul Kasmin Gallery Archive
Mark Ryden’s solo exhibition “The Art of Whipped Cream” that is on presentation at Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York, features drawings, sketches and paintings created for the production of American Ballet Theatre’s “Whipped Cream”. The exhibition coincides with American Ballet Theatre’s (ABT) New York premiere of “Whipped Cream” at the Metropolitan Opera House (22/5/17), a delectable ballet from the imagination of ABT Artist in Residence Alexei Ratmansky featuring designs, backdrops, props and costumes by Mark Ryden, all of which retain the artist’s meticulous attention to detail and intricate craftsmanship seen throughout his oeuvre. “Whipped Cream”, is based on the two-act ballet with libretto and score by Richard Strauss, originally created as Schlagobers and performed at the Vienna State Opera in 1924. Originally titled “Schlagobers”, the Austrian word for whipped cream, the production adapts a rediscovered Richard Strauss ballet from 1924 that centers at one Boy and his friends that have just received their First Communion, and how better to celebrate than with unbridled gluttony at Vienna’s finest pastry shop. The Chef can’t keep the whipped cream away from the Boy, that falls into a state of delirium in which his candy confections come to life. Drawing from this narrative, Ryden further delves into the darker undercurrents of sweetness, from its sugary excesses to the intoxicating effects of overindulgence. Character studies in oil on board, as well as graphite on paper, introduce a peculiar new collection of characters to Ryden’s fantastical world. “Princess Tea Flower” (2016), the personification of pink and green flowering tea leaves, carries herself in a classical ballerina pose. Champagne and vodka costumes drawn for the figures of “Marianne” (2016) and “Boris” (2016) incorporate elements of kitsch, complete with their identifying liquor labels. “Desserts Counter” (2016) presents an enticing cluster of Viennese confections in candy-colored tones: cupcakes, coffee and cocoa tins, and towers of pastries floating in front of a pink background. In addition to these new characters, many of the artist’s most enduring motifs and familiar creatures reappear in this body of work. Ryden’s loved “Snow Yak” reemerges from its 2008 namesake ”The Snow Yak Show in Whipped Cream” as an eye-catching character donning the beautiful Princess Praline in her procession scene. Throughout the various sets and backdrops designed for the ballet, “Snow Yak” materializes as symbols incarnated, as well as in a schematic sketch of the two-person costume design. Introducing characters from previous bodies of work, Ryden blurs the boundary between ballet’s status as a product of high culture and its place in the wider contemporary cultural imagination.
Info: Paul Kasmin Gallery, 515 West 27th Street, New York, Duration: 20/5-21/7/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.paulkasmingallery.com
