Craquelure kingfisher tiles, PS34.95, Walls and Floors Ltd
The connection between Brazilian and Chinese cultures established through historical trading routes underpins a great deal of Varejao's work, both figuratively and in her use of
craquelure.
This unique frame, that has various structural and surface losses, is painted to mimic a
craquelure surface and is essential to understanding the trompe l'oeil element in the painting which extends onto the face of the inner frame.
A fine
craquelure effect further underscores the antique nature of the design.
What is '
craquelure', often found on old paintings?
Some of them have as much
craquelure as something from the 15th century.
and thanks to unsealed product feels ail the white and true that until then remained covered by the
craquelure of his outward self
Is this because the artworks--some stenciled on wood achieving an instant
craquelure, others on collaged newsprint, yet others on discontinued wallpaper--look prematurely aged, giving an appearance of venerable deterioration to their contemporary substance?
And surely, for the third world, the intense contortions of form, the acid colors, the agitated surface and the heavy impasto of the van Gogh painting--not to mention the various signs of its age (the
craquelure of the dried paint, for example) indicating its endurance and survival into the present--these must be the painting-work's analogue of the "glow of the stone" and "power of the storm" that Heidegger finds revealed in the natural/ontological world of the temple-work.
And lastly, there were the transparent glazes, colourless or hued for vitreous, maiolica or
craquelure effects.
In her installation Wandering Hands (1999), Klix spread clay slip in the vivid red of Central Australian earth across the floor of Object Gallery, Sydney, allowing it to dry in its own time, to split and peel like the
craquelure of a dry season flood plain.
Levinson, for instance, notes that the English researcher Spike Bucklow "has been able to associate
craquelure patterns with different eras of art history." The problem is that, based on these studies, Bucklow has just recently released a full-dress paper conclusively confirming as genuine a supposedly fourteenth-century Sienese painted wedding casket.