Martin Wittfooth’s animal paintings transport us into a realm where the familiar and bizarre coexist in a dance of color and symbolism. His artworks intriguingly juxtapose majestic creatures with surreal landscapes, evoking a sense of both reverence and introspection. Each painting vividly portrays animals like tigers, birds, and wolves set against apocalyptic backdrops. These creatures are often depicted entangled with relics of human civilization, hinting at a narrative of environmental decay and nature’s resilience. Wittfooth masterfully uses symbolism to critique humanity’s often distressing relationship with the natural world, creating a visual dialogue that is simultaneously haunting and mesmerizing.
Wittfooth’s choice of rich, dark palettes adds a layered depth to his paintings, drawing the viewer into a contemplation of the complex dynamics between human progress and nature’s decay. The dark tones serve to emphasize the surrealism of his works, casting a spotlight on the intricate details and the emotive expressions of his subjects. Through this captivating interplay of light and shadow, Wittfooth challenges conventional perceptions of beauty, provoking reflections on the consequences of unchecked industrialization. In essence, his paintings don’t merely depict animals; they animate a narrative that resonates with themes of loss, hope, and inevitable transformation, inviting viewers to ponder their own role within this narrative.
I arrived at my “style” through a long period of searching, trying different techniques, trying to emulate something a previous artist had been able to evoke in a work. It felt like a long time just trying to figure something out, and there’s no clear point in time where it felt that things clicked together and my work began to feel like my own, and not just derivative of something that I was trying to learn from. I’ve picked up a lot of ideas and pointers from visiting galleries and museums, and while living in New York I have gotten to do quite a bit of that, and in that same time my work has arrived at some place that I feel is its own organic thing; still going through changes and new explorations but with a more solid base to launch from. I decided to remove the human figure from my work (yet retain a suggestion that a human fingerprint has an influence on the scenes I paint) sometime during my two-year Masters program when I first moved to New York in 2006. I wanted to see if I could express emotion and ideas without the aid of a human agent. Earlier I thought about incorporating human forms but found that in an attempt to carve out my own identity as a painter I stylized them heavily and didn’t feel that I could bring forth a kind of gravity that I was seeking to work with.
Martin Wittfooth
More info: Website, Instagram (h/t: Beautiful Bizarre, Virtu).
