Contemporary art – What makes it special?

In focus today is an alteration of Birth of Venus (1486) by Sandro Botticelli is a part of ‘Concealed Spaces’, a 26-artwork series by José Manuel Ballester, a Spanish artist. His vision was to remove human figures from the greatest paintings of all time and portray the well overlooked beauty of the backdrops.

#whatmakesitspecial - This ‘empty looking’ piece where nature and architecture become the main subjects through his eyes, leaves a lot of room for interpretation and contemplation with the spectator. Ballester used Photoshop and other digital tools to remove Venus, Zephyrus, Chloris and Pamona, leaving the unsettling seashore to be perceived as a new work of art by the viewers.

“One of the clearest aspects in this series is the way we can understand art from the point of view of each period, which has a unique way of looking and understanding reality shared by artists, who develop their creativity inside those period’s values and connect with ideas and universal precepts extended in time” said Ballester.

He has recreated multiple paintings from the Italian Renaissance in the series which was curated in collaboration with Museo del Prado in Madrid. In 2013, this collection was shown in The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University by Francine Birbragher-Rozencwaig.

Send us a heart in comments below if you see its wonder.

*This is an ongoing series of deep analysis into iconic contemporary works to take you on a journey in discovering what makes it so special. With each post we hope to bring the wonder of this world to you in a way that helps you understand why a 5-year old could not have thought of it ;) We have been there ourselves till someone opened up this world for us and made us fall in love!*