BERNARD MENS; FOUR OIL PORTRAITS
By Nii B. Andrews
Let us return briefly to the 1940s; specifically to Turin, and recollect the photographic portraits carefully staged in the Casa Miller by the enigmatic Carlo Mollino- architect, designer, race car driver, life time bachelor and bon vivant.
A woman’s figure emerges as the central element in Mollino’s portraits and he argued provocatively that the female figure only exists for the camera.
But the world has since moved on; how far forward we have come!
Certainly, no one in my current inner circle speaks like that or harbors such Rabelaisian sentiments – no matter their gender.
By the end of 1945, Casa Miller was dismantled and a new apartment assembled by Mollino leading to more exuberant photographic fancies.
These painted oil portraits of Bernard Mens in certain aspects remind us of the finest examples of the earliest portrait photographs of Mollino – way before his aforementioned risqué excursions.
Mens displays meticulous technique and an exquisite attention to detail thus ensuring that his portraits telegraph a dignified and ethereal quality.
His treatment of light and shadow is superlative.
“Everything is permissible as long as it is fantastic”, said Mollino.
Bernard Mens in these portraits confirms for us that it is indeed so.
He has achieved a harmonious synthesis of science and art, logic and poetry, beauty and practicality.
Do you agree?
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