By Paul Laster and Renée Riccardo

Iris van Dongen’s ‘Suspicious’ - a survey show of the artist’s large-scale drawings from 2003 to 2009, recently on view at the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam - was a striking exhibition by a rising star on the international art scene. Born in Tilburg in 1975 and living and working in Berlin, Van Dongen mixes pastel and charcoal in her works on paper that portray gorgeous, gothic mistresses and femme fatales.

We only recently discovered her work when Paul photographed New York magazine art critic Jerry Saltz alongside one of her pastels at the Armory Show. The figure in the drawing totally dwarfed him, and Van Dongen’s work forever stuck in our minds. We later discovered that she had shown in New York at Salon 94, a gallery run by our friend Jeannie Greenburg Rohatyn, but we had somehow missed that 2005 solo exhibition.

Since her 2005 New York showing, Van Dongen has leapt on the world stage with solo exhibitions in Amsterdam, Paris, and Athens. Her romantic imagery, which is equally inspired by the aesthetics of Symbolism and the glam appeal of decadent fashion photography and music videos, lures the viewer into its seductive and haunting trap. Young women emerge from shadows, pose with rock ‘n roll and hooligan emblems, are entwined by snakes, and flaunt goth accessories and tattoos, and stare blankly for an imaginary lens.

While viewing Van Dongen’s work, we thought of an American counterpart, or an opposite, if solely considered for his mostly male subject matter: Hernan Bas. The Miami-based, Cuban-American artist is someone we have been following for many years, since first seeing his work in a group show at Frederic Snitzer Gallery, some ten years back. The subject of a recent exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum- which covered a decade of works on paper, paintings, installation, and video- and a current show of new work at Lehmann Maupin in New York, Bas is also an artist with a romantic penchant, and one equally in demand worldwide.

Bas’ earliest works were colored with the dietetic drink Slim Fast- a commentary on the fashion world’s desire to define our form-but once he started painting on paper with water-based oil, he developed a black-and-white illustrative style that could expressionistically convey the adventures of teenage boys. Bas’ boys, inspired by Nancy Drew’s fictional girls, share an adventurous camaraderie while camping out, exploring caves, reading Oscar Wilde, flying a kite, and dressing like harlequins and dandies, while exploring other Proustian delights.

These two artists, who were born three years apart and come from completely different culture, share more in thought and intention than in end result, but as we see it, in a world where information and trends spread fast, they are kindred spirits, drinking inspiration from the same well.

About the authors
Paul Laster and Renée Riccardo, who live and work in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, are former Adjunct Curators of Photography at New York’s P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center. Laster is the editor of Artkrush.com, a contributing editor at Flavorpill.com and Art Asia Pacific, and a contributing writer at Time Out New York and Art in America. Riccardo, who directed ARENA Gallery for 13 years, is an independent curator.

Photo credit: Aura Rosenberga

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