Ian Kiaer at the Venice Biennale

At the Foundation Querini Stampalia, the English artist stages his Baciamano.

English artist Ian Kiaer has brought his Baciamano to the Fondazione Querini Stampalia for the 54th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. Avidly influenced by all creative forms, for this project Kiaer has borrowed and mixed input from two Venetian figures closely linked to the history of the Foundation where he is exhibiting—the painter Pietro Longhi (1702–1785) and the great architect Carlo Scarpa (1906–1978). The latter is recognised as the greatest designer of minimalist and revolutionary restoration and museum-design projects, including that for the Querini Stampalia premises. "My reaction to the request for a project for Venice was one of enthusiasm and curiosity. Coming to a city so rich in history and art was a major challenge. I remember the first time I saw Longhi's painting Il Baciamano (A Nobleman Kissing a Lady's Hand) at the National Gallery in London. I was amazed by the accuracy of detail and the crafting of the signs, as well as the skill with which the painter managed to record the mood of his times", explains Kiaer.

Ian Kiaer, <i>Il Baciamano</i> (giallo) [detail], 2011. Courtesy Art At Work, photo by Simona Cupoli. — Ian Kiaer, *Il Baciamano* (giallo) [detail], 2011. Courtesy Art At Work, photo by Simona Cupoli.

"In Santa Maria in Formosa, I was fascinated by the perfect, or almost perfect, geometry that Scarpa brought to the Querini Stampalia spaces, inside and out, so I created a 3D garden-chess module which I then transferred to my canvases. I did the same with one of Longhi's decorative Rococo details, reproduced as a sinopia and taken from a small painting also here in the Querini Stampalia collection", he adds. Although long ignored because considered a genre painter, Longhi produced meticulous and admirable illustrations of 18th-century society and its decadence. In his small-format works, figures painted in minute detail seem detached from their historical context while still portraying the habits and trifles of an anachronistic everyday life. This didactic aspect of Longhi's work intrigued Kiaer and he extrapolated small details, drawing them in the same way as they did in frescoes three hundred years ago. "I wanted to reproduce those same details in my own way", he says. He was struck by Scarpa's uniquely modular and complex organisation of spaces and materials, even managing to dialogue with water, a prime and tyrannical element, and the way he subjugated them to his elegiac vision of the project as a whole. Kiaer transfers those same modules into the exhibition in a 3D object and onto the flat surface of one of his paintings.

Ian Kiaer, <i>Il Baciamano</i> (bianco) , 2011.
Courtesy Art At Work, photo by Simona Cupoli. — Ian Kiaer, *Il Baciamano* (bianco) , 2011. Courtesy Art At Work, photo by Simona Cupoli.

Kiaer's attention focused on Venice and how the artist and architect operated within the notion of a minor form of expression, underscoring the importance of detail, trivial actions and constant changes in timbre. Kiaer is capable of creating symbolic worlds and metaphysical installations that hover between reality and imagination in quick sketches, seemingly meaningless fragments and small objects. The "Il Baciamano" exhibition, curated by the Art At Work collective in collaboration with the Alison Jacques Gallery, offers a glimpse into the highly personal reality perceived by the British artist and conveyed via the influences drawn from his two references, Longhi and Scarpa. These are transferred onto the canvas with sometimes random materials, drawings on tracing paper and works produced with recycled objects, such as the plastic-coated canary-yellow fabric of an old umbrella used to recreate the ample skirts of 18th-century women. "The decision to employ simple materials to tell my story came about totally by chance. I was thinking about the project in my studio and looking around when I stumbled on an old umbrella and thought I could use what was lying around me. I did, however, search carefully for the exact shades of colour that would best represent Longhi's matte black and ochre yellow and I tried to reproduce them."

I was fascinated by the perfect, or almost perfect, geometry that Scarpa brought to the Querini Stampalia spaces, inside and out, so I created a 3D garden-chess module which I then transferred to my canvases.

Ian Kiaer, <i>Il Baciamano</i> (nero) [detail], 2011.
Courtesy Art At Work, photo by Simona Cupoli. — Ian Kiaer, *Il Baciamano* (nero) [detail], 2011. Courtesy Art At Work, photo by Simona Cupoli.

Kiaer's Venetian Baciamano is a few square metres filled with emotions and information to be uncovered slowly; it is a short solo filled with meaning, like the outmoded gesture of the title. As was the norm in the 18th century, a mere glance or the hint of a smile constitutes a specific and never-equalled code that conveys a deeper meaning. With as many delicate and tenuous actions, Ian Kiaer has rewritten those times in his own.
Maria Cristina Didero

Ian Kiaer, <i>Il Baciamano</i> (bianco) [detail], 2011.
Courtesy Art At Work, photo by Simona Cupoli. — Ian Kiaer, *Il Baciamano* (bianco) [detail], 2011. Courtesy Art At Work, photo by Simona Cupoli.

Ian Kiaer at the Venice Biennale

At the Foundation Querini Stampalia, the English artist stages his Baciamano.

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