Robert Horvath Petit Mort
Herron School of Art and Design
November 29 - December 20, 2017
Robert Horvath’s work explores the politics of representation and social discomfort experienced in response to queer sexuality. Using realistic renderings of imagined sculptural forms, Horvath articulates the manner in which homosexuality has been camouflaged and left unacknowledged in the history of Western art.
The figurative forms in Horvath’s digital prints are the first step in the creative process and are used as source images for paintings. His digital compositions reference the traditional manner in which the objects produced at porcelain factories were made, with each object being assembled from hundreds of individually molded details and decorated with expensive raw materials. Horvath pulled individual elements from upwards of 10,000 photographs, from museum collections and Rococo palaces, which he then digitally manipulated to create reimagined porcelain pieces.
By inventing sculptural compositions in the style of 18th-century Rococo porcelain, Horvath generates alternative images of - and possibilities for - sex and intimacy. Historical objects produced at the porcelain factories in Sèvres, France and Meissan, Germany—once highly prized commodities that conferred prestige to their patrons- are used as source material. Embedding hidden gay figures in the frivolity and self-indulgence of traditional Rococo forms and objects, Horvath gestures to the history of homophobia and resistance to it, while simultaneously seeking to shock and challenge modern viewers. By drawing parallels between the sensibilities of elite European art patrons and representations of homosexuality, these works negotiate space for representations of contemporary queer sexuality.
The aesthetics of male erotica and pornography are elevated and positioned as objects of value and admiration to confront the disproportionate role of queer artists in the cannon of Western art. Institutional censorship, through suppressing or excluding artwork that challenges heteronormativity, maintains the oppression of gay artists facing scrutiny from social and academic realms. Utilizing the methodology of museum collections, these paintings seek to elevate the homoerotic porcelain from an object of questionable taste to that of historical artifact. Sexualized male bodies are painted into lavish interiors and display cases, signifying queer sexuality occupying an equal standing in museums and institutions.
