Klimt Mouse 2022

Sergey Piskunov seems to have made Klimt Mouse with paint, maybe recently, maybe not. What a bizarre object! It's shaped like Mickey Mouse but it's rendered as a pile of soft cubes wrapped in cellophane, each one printed with motifs from Klimt paintings. I can feel Piskunov's attraction to art history, particularly to Klimt's decorative patterning. It's as if he's asking, what if these luxurious images were mass produced, made from the same stuff as a McDonald's toy? The cellophane wrapping gives the image a sheen which I am sure would not be there in person. The glossy finish flattens everything, making it hard to read the soft forms as three dimensional. Is this painting a comment on the nature of art, or a clever joke? Maybe it's both. Either way, the artist is in conversation with the history of painting, sampling and remixing existing imagery to create something unique. It's a playful exploration of image making that leaves plenty of room for interpretation.