Hernan Bas

Hernan Bas was born in Miami, Florida and currently lives and works in Detroit. His work is characterized by vibrant colors, and expressionism. He is heavily influenced by the aestheticism and decadence periods which began in the late 1800s and focus on the combination of art and literature and the interaction between art and life. This period challenged victorian thinking through the exploration of a new relationship between sex, art, life and normal ideas of beauty. Bas' work is influenced by novels and essays from this period as well as his own internal experiences as an adolescent.

In much of his work, Bas depicts boys in abstract, dark and colorful landscapes with lonely expressions. His work began when he was an adolescent figuring out his identity. Bas is a gay artist but did not feel as though he fit the explicitly flamboyant gay stereotype nor the masculine jock stereotype and felt somewhere in the middle. He depicts his feelings of confusion and transience through his paintings. Bas portrays stories through his work and thinks of his series as chapters. This approach references Bas' influence from literature.

One thing that draws me into his work is the vast array of materials and methods he uses. He makes oil paintings, mixed media collages, prints, and pencil drawings, often using a combination of these different methods in one piece. Bas uses different surfaces as well such as cotton, canvas, paper and wood panels and as his work progresses his pieces are becoming larger.

The work of Hernan Bas has been very influential in the direction I am taking on my final series. His work is relevant in its form and content but also its message. He creates a vast amount of space in his landscapes and distorts reality and perception. The paintings have a dark and nearly sinister feeling but are balanced by his use of vibrant colors. His landscapes make the viewer feel as though they are in a distant and surreal place. The spaces appear as though they could be from a fantasy novel or story and convey sensual and homoerotic undertones.