Anne von Freyburg reconstructs Rococo portraits in stitched fabric and at a grand scale. Her imagery focuses on a stylised idea of feminine beauty as found in the tradition of Boucher and Fragonard. Appropriated portraits are recreated in ink and acrylic and then embellished by hand-stitching diverse fabrics to build up a visual feast with almost bodily presence. Whilst on the one hand playful and referencing the decorative quality of their sources, the over-indulgence in these works also points to the excesses of throwaway fashion, selfies, and consumerism. The smorgasbord of mass-produced textiles underlines this, often pushing the work into the realm of kitsch and the grotesque, and illustrates how ideas of the beautiful are always constructed and highly subjective.
Anne von Freyburg is a Dutch artist based in London. She studied her MA Fine Art at Goldsmiths, graduating in 2016, and her BA in Fashion Design at Hogeschool voor de Beeldende kunsten Arnhem, Netherlands, graduating in 2001. In 2019 she was awarded a residency at the Florence Trust in London, and in 2016 was shortlisted for the Art Gemini Prize. Anne has exhibited in London, the Netherlands, Germany, and Spain.
