64” x 38”/ 162 x 97cm. Oil on linen.
Arantzazu Martinez is an academic painter from Vitoria, Spain. Shenrolled in the New York Academy of Figurative Art (NYAA) MFA program and graduated in 2002, and then studied at the Water Street Atelier with Jacob Collins.
"The technical expertise, the considered compositions, the exceptional treatment of light and the human form are evident and much appreciated in Martinez’s work. It has the ability to recreate a dream world where magic and fantasy are part of reality."
I stumbled across this image on my tumblr feed today and thought I would share. Here you can see some of that "vampires are sexy" thing leaking in, but I think it's fairly justified. The image itself seems to speak more to the sexual tension that we discussed during class, seeing Dracula (or Nosferatu) as sexual and appealing in his own manner. In this image, Dracula dominates over the woman, as evidenced by both his position above and behind her but also his dark aura surrounding her. Even his shadow is abnormal in that it is reflected in the form of a bat on the wall. Overall, this is a huge painting with exceptional technical skill that I think really captures some of the emotions of the Dracula tale.
I completely agree with your post, this is really quite amazing. I'm curious as to what page that book is open to, and if it's related to the theme at all. If the artist was inspired by Nosferatu at all, maybe a page form the book Hutter was reading? Warning of vampires and not letting their shadows consume you in the night...
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about that, too... or, given the layout of the images in the book, perhaps they were reading Kracauer as well!
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