PUBLICATION CENTER

Beat Keerl, based in SoHo, N.Y., creates masterpieces of illusion through photography, embellished with paint, that bring frenetic activity to still life artwork. It’s performance art captured in time on film and translated to canvas.

“I’m a painter using photography. My work is about the self portrait in flux. I believe the true portrait is about representing the artist and portrait in time. However, the figure in the image is actually kind of secondary to object, whether it’s a ladder, a chair, a wheelchair, or a chaise lounge. The events that take place to create the images are almost like performances, but usually just involve myself,” says Keerl.

The object anchors the image, while the movement brings a certain life and ambiguity to the overall composition.

These creations are remarkable representations of Keerl’s multi-media expertise, which has evolved over time with the introduction of new technology. 

“For years I was using straight photographic prints in black-and-white that I painted with oils, incorporating two languages, the hand-made and the chemical. It’s a dichotomy I’ve always enjoyed. The issue has been technically how to make these portraits. In the early days, I used 35mm negatives and my exposures were an hour long. One painting would involve three 30x80 panels. I would be in the darkroom all day, and it was very tedious. The big prints would be developed, put in the bathtub where they would be washed, and mounted on hollow-core doors,” explains Keerl. “Five years ago or so I dropped the idea of using the chemicals because of the advent of the big printers with archival inks, so I got the Epson 9600 and it’s been great. I’m doing everything on the computer and printing on Sunset Select Matte Canvas.”

After printing, Keerl puts a coat of wax, thinned with turpentine, on top.

In some cases, depending on the context of the piece, Keerl wants the brush strokes to show, and in other cases he polishes the wax to get rid of the brush strokes.

“The canvas mounts on the hollow-core doors beautifully. I put the canvas down, roll it out, and stretch it around the door, and it works very well. The doors stay flat, they’re light, and I can bolt them together for larger images,” explains Keerl. He is especially thankful for the technological transition to inkjet since the process produces extreme accuracy.

In one case, one of his 112-in. tall self portraits was being transported to Germany and was damaged during shipping. Keerl photographed the original painting, brought it into the computer, and reproduced the original in the exact size on his printer. “The print came out better than the original,” recalls Keerl.