Hernan Bas: Works from the Rubell Family Collection

by Mark Coetzee, Dominic Molon, Robert Carleton Hobbs

The work of rising Miami artist Hernan Bas indulges in the production of romantic, melancholic, old world imagery that makes reference to Wilde, Huysmans and other writers of the Aesthetic and Decadent period in literature. Reviewing Bas' "pictures of willowy young men filtered through screens of swipey, streaky acrylic and gouache," The New York Times ' Holland Cotter once wrote, "To me, his paintings are elements in a larger, continuous conceptual-performance piece about being gay in twenty-first-century America. He understands that 'gay' is a larger and more interesting category than 'artist,' and one still embattled and historically underexplored. I value whatever he brings to that history." This volume presents 38 works produced over the last decade.

Genres: Art

218 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2008

About the author

Mark Coetzee was a South African curator, author, and artist whose career spanned continents and institutions. After studying Fine Art at Stellenbosch University, he began his career as a painter and later founded the Mark Coetzee Fine Art Cabinet in Cape Town in the late 1990s. In 2001, he was appointed director of the Rubell Family Collection (now the Rubell Museum) in Miami, where he helped shape one of the most influential private collections of contemporary art.
In 2009, Coetzee joined Puma as program director of PumaVision and chief curator of Puma.Creative, working under Jochen Zeitz. This collaboration led to his appointment as founding executive director and chief curator of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art (Zeitz MOCAA), which opened in Cape Town in 2017 as a major platform for contemporary African art. He resigned from Zeitz MOCAA in 2018 amid allegations of misconduct.
Throughout his life, Coetzee remained active as a writer and art critic, contributing to publications including The Huffington Post, Mail & Guardian, Revue Noire, and Sunday Independent, and publishing monographs on various artists. He was remembered for his belief in the transformative power of art and his influence on the African and international art scenes.

Reviews

[Dustincecil · Rating 4 out of 5]

thoughtful interviews.

i wish the pages were bigger. and that the images didn't cover two pages with a spinal crack down the middle!!

really good stuff tho

[Jason Longchamps · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a catalogue from Bas' recent exhibition at Miami's Rubell Family Collection. Only 1 of the 3 texts is valuable: an interview with Bas about his influences and work. Obviously, the reason to seek out this publication is to trace the first 10 years of this young artist's career.