The gestural brushstrokes, thick and forceful, cover almost the entire surface, reflecting a dialogue between spontaneity and consciousness, emotion and intellect. Some works in Mirror Paintings (Brussels version) hold opaque layers of oil paint, while more delicate washes of color dance across other works’ surfaces. Yet others incorporate collaged materials sourced from book covers, found texts and images as well as private photos. These elements converge into a singular installation, wherein the works partly covered, form a fragmented mirroring wall effect, a kind of mosaic that encompasses the surroundings, throwing viewers back on their own image.
Bonde’s paintings offer a visual narrative, reflecting the ever-changing movement, light, and textures of the rooms they inhabit. Viewers are no longer mere witnesses to the works; they escape the contemplative role and inevitably interact with the paintings. Furthermore, Bonde’s incorporation of found objects or texts into the works provide a larger exploration of seriality, authorship and mechanical reproduction – a series of concerns present not only within this series, but across his entire body of work.
Balancing between the spontaneity of Abstract Expressionism and conceptual concerns shared by artists of the Pictures Generation, Bonde questions the power and function of mass-circulated imagery. He uses such images not only for inspiration, but as appropriated objects. In works like Little Finland and Shut up, no you shut up, images, photos, and words converge, creating a multi-layered and multi-media composition of inkjet prints, oil painting and mirror foils. This deconstructed process and reversed temporality heighten the optical potential of the reflective surface, turning the mirror foil into a medium through which messages are transmitted. The viewer becomes the subject of the artwork, seeing themselves within it. The result is a constant metamorphosis of the paintings, integrating both the space and the viewer into the ever-evolving artwork—an immersive experience that also raises questions about the ontological status of art and appropriation.
Peter Bonde (b. 1958) graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Art in 1982, where he went on to serve as professor of painting from 1996 to 2005. He has recently been working on a series of collaborative projects with Danh Vo, which showed at spaces such as the Osaka National Museum of Art in 2020 and the 58th Biennale of Venice in 2019. With Jason Rhoades, he represented Denmark at the Venice Biennale in 1999. In 2020, Bonde had solo shows at Sorø Kunstmuseum (Sorø, DK), Martin Asbæk Gallery (Copenhagen, DK), and Natalia Hug Gallery (Cologne, DE). The artist is represented in all major Danish art museums including the Danish National Gallery, ARoS, Trapholt Museum for Moderne Kunst, Esbjerg Art Museum, as well as Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg in Germany, and in private collections worldwide such as Elgiz Collection, Turkey and Axa Northern Stern, Cologne. Bonde lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark.
