Details:

This painting, a recreation of a detail from an older work, comments on how once living beings become equated with decoration and symbols of class in historical narratives.
Framed: 22.9 x 18.5 x 1.5 in.
Signed

① Artwork:

Blank and pitiless

This painting recreates a detail of a dead rabbit from Frans Snyders’ Still life with Fruit, Dead Game, Vegetables, a Live Monkey, Squirrel and Cat from the 1600s. The rabbit appears in Snyders’ painting as one of many symbols of bounty. In Mockrin’s painting, the rabbit’s blank gaze as it lays on an empty table is juxtaposed with a bowl of fruit and floral wallpaper. The image comments on how once living beings become equated with decoration and symbols of class. Mockrin's reinterpretation of the older painting explores those dynamics, as well as the tension between beauty and violence, that undergirds the original work's historical narrative.

Specs:

16.3 inches
20.5 inches
with frame
18.5 inches
22.88 inches
1.5 inches
22.88 inches

③ Artist:

Jesse Mockrin

Jesse Mockrin’s paintings refer to symbolic traditions and cultural narratives in the history of European art. She uses methods of cropping, enlargement and combination to destabilize and invigorate the works she references, adding new significance even where her renditions remain faithful. Her work often addresses gender and androgyny by reclaiming stories from a feminist perspective.

Jesse Mockrin:
Blank and pitiless, 2021
Oil on paper
20.5 × 16.3 inches /
Jesse Mockrin:
Blank and pitiless, 2021
Oil on paper
20.5 × 16.3 inches /