@ Home | Bernard Piffaretti at Frans Kasl’s

In our new series ‚@ Home‘ we are unveiling artworks by artists of the gallery that have been acquired by collectors, and we show them within their new home setting.

For our first post in the series, we are delighted to share a work by Bernard Piffaretti, in the home of Frans Kasl.

“Named one of the greatest painters of his generation, Piffaretti has refined his “Piffaretti system” for many decades. (…) Each painting begins with the artist establishing a clear separation between left and right, by painting ‘the central mark’ – the vertical line that divides the canvas into two equal sides. The artist then creates an abstract composition of gestural marks on one side, and follows to re-create the image opposite, on the other side of the vertical line. However, while Piffaretti is interested in the process of mirroring, he is not concerned with producing an ideal, symmetrical image. Instead, he purposely paints an inexact, doubled image that instantly challenges our perception and forces us to question what we are seeing. Because we do not know which side the artist painted first (left or right), we cannot identify which side is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, and instead each becomes an equally imperfect double. Our minds actively try to decode the puzzle of Piffaretti’s chosen variations, highlighting our inherent psychological and emotional response to this technique.”