diptych size 120cm x 120cm with frame
From Heimler and Proc Chrysalis Series 2023
$12000
'Fruits in Your Hand' the last and defining work in the artist paring Gabriel Heimler and Anna Proc's 'Chrysalis' series, paintings all based on the 1656 Spanish artist Diego Velazquez's 'Las Meninas'. 'Las Meninas' has become one of the most widely analysed works in Western painting for the way its complex composition raises questions about reality and illusion, and for the uncertain relationship it creates between the viewer and the figures. Derivatives of 'Las Meninas' work have been created by many artists including Picasso , Dali, Goya and John Singer Sargent. The painting is believed to depict a room in the Royal Alcazar of Madrid during the reign of King Philip IV of Spain, and presents several figures, most identifiable from the Spanish court, captured in a particular moment as if in a snapshot. The five-year-old Infanta Margaret Theresa is surrounded by her entourage of maids of honour, chaperone, bodyguard, two dwarfs and a dog. Just behind them, Velázquez portrays himself working at a large canvas. In the background there is a mirror that reflects the upper bodies of the king and queen. (Description of 'Las Meninas' provided by Wikipedia)
Heimler and Proc's interpretation is inspired by Leda the mythological queen of Sparta who was seduced by Zeus in the form of a swan, resulting in the birth of famous figures like Helen of Troy.
Artists' Statement
“In this audacious synthesis, Heimler & Proc recast Leda’s fateful union not as seduction’s consummation but as a daughter’s desperate bid to reclaim her sire from Zeus’s perennial wanderlust—the god’s notorious penchant for metamorphic dalliances with mortals. The Infanta’s gesture, laden with pomegranate-like fruits, symbolises the progeny borne of such unions: the very fruits of life, those tender legacies that tether the ephemeral to the eternal.
Yet the artists transcend mere narrative elegy, issuing a clarion call to forsake the petty jealousies that fracture familial bonds. In the tableau’s resplendent tumult—where waterfalls murmur of untamed origins, mirrors reflect unborn potentials, and birds bridge the chasm between myth and maternity—lies an exhortation to embrace life’s quintessence: creation, continuity, and the redemptive grace of letting go. Thus, Fruits in Your Hand emerges as a paean to forgiveness, a canvas where the roar of Keri Keri’s waters drowns the echoes"
Gabriel Heimler and Anna Proc work together on all their paintings and all are signed by both. Gabriel is known for his mural 'The Wall Jumper' painted on the Berlin Wall in 1989. This mural exists as part of the East Side Gallery in Berlin and is now reproduced in the Berlin International Airport. Gabriel and Anna together painted 'The Mover' mural on the Museum QT Hotel in Wellington.