2019-2020
Rococo Remastered
Channeling the pastel excesses of pre-Revolutionary France and Miami's relentless pool culture, Rococo Remastered reinterprets canonical Rococo paintings — Coypel, Boucher, Fragonard — as buoyant, disaster-ready objects. The works are constructed with expanding marine foam and inflatable pool floats, then documented floating in pools, oceans, and rivers.
The Rococo movement preceded France's revolution by only a few decades — its aristocratic frivolity and deliberate blindness to a system out of balance immortalized in pastel. These works are tongue-in-cheek and functional in equal measure: buoyant enough to survive what they depict, frivolous enough to be mistaken for decoration. If history repeats itself, we are drawing alarmingly close parallels to what came before.
"Abduction of Europa, After Coypel" Afloat in Miami
Performative documentation photograph
Limited Edition, Archival Print 18” x 24” + Frame
[Available]
The Abduction of Europa, After Coypel
Modeled after Noel Nicolas Coypel's "The Abduction of Europa," the nymph Europa, who is abducted into the sea by Poseidon disguised as a bull, warns of the dangers in allowing the temporary allure of a bull market economy to drag us all under with it.
Acrylic on canvas, pool floats, bachelor doll, expanding marine foam, found buoy, fisherman's identification tag, brass tacks
60” x 60” x 12”, 2019
[Available]
"The Setting of the Sun, After Boucher" Afloat in Miami
Performative documentation photograph
Limited Edition, Archival Print 24”x 18” + Frame
[Available]
The Setting of the Sun, After Boucher
Modeled after Francios Boucher's "The Setting of the Sun," Apollo the Sun God becomes a “bro” in sunglasses unaware that the party is ending.
Acrylic on canvas, pool floats, bachelor doll, expanding marine foam, found net float, brass tacks
62” x 50” x 12”, 2019
[Available]
Study of a Putto
Acrylic on canvas, inflatable pool float, expanding marine foam, brass tacks
16” x 10” x 6”, 2019
Documented floating in a resort pool in Cancun, Mexico
Set includes: painting and framed documentation photograph (8 x 10 in. photo in 18.5 x 18.5 in. frame)
[In Private Collection, Hamptons, NY]
Sunset No. 1 - 6
Ink, pigment on synthetic sailcloth, eco-resin
24” x 18” x 1”, 2019
Frolicking Putti
Acrylic on canvas, inflatable pool floats, expanding marine foam, brass tacks
24” x 20” x 6”, 2019
Documented floating during Art Basel, Miami Beach
Rococo Remastered: Sunset on the Empire
2018, Floating on painting down the Potomac River, Washington, D.C.
Performed by Noel Kassewitz, photographed by Jack Kassewitz
©Kassewitz & Kassewitz Productions
[In the Public Collection, University of Maryland]