‘I was after mystique rather than power’: artist Jonathan Yeo on his radical portrait of King Charles
How do you paint a modern monarch? Jonathan Yeo, in his life portrait of King Charles commissioned on behalf of the Drapers’ Company and unveiled today at Buckingham Palace has achieved this – and it is fair to say, it has been long in the coming...
“I wanted to open up his character to other interpretations” Yeo, who is a personal friend, told me when he first showed it to me a few weeks ago. “The military is not the thing we will know him for. I was after mystique rather than power - to throw in a bit of fairy dust if you like. To that end, I also changed the tone of red to something more artificial and fantastical”
I think I see what he's getting at here - I was after mystique rather than power - to throw in a bit of fairy dust if you like. Fairy dust is a clear reference to the mystical arcana of climate change, the inner mysteries and magical measures used to fight the twin evils of scepticism and veracity.
Through art we catch a glimpse of the majestic workings of minimalist thought and the sublime, the barely comprehensible rejection of superfluous intellectual dignity.
It's a nice painting too.
Yeo is indeed a very clever artist. He makes Charles look like some sort of sage - that face would look good crowned with a turban or accompanied by a monk's robe - and makes a natural authority radiate from him. In real life, though, he looks more like a worried constipated bloke struggling to learn the zeitgeist.
ReplyDeleteSam - yes, Charles hasn't kept himself sufficiently aloof to maintain at least some level of natural authority. William will be the same.
ReplyDeleteThe Hell of warble gloaming and a smirk which says, "I told you so."
ReplyDeleteDiabolic cackle!
Doonhamer - that could be it, and if it turns colder he'll commission a blue one.
ReplyDelete