By Isabel Ovalle
Brazilian-born artist Harding Meyer looks at the subject of his portraits eye to eye and engages himself in his work for months to get the result he’s looking for, that of mixing realism and abstract styles. Faces are the focus of the works he is exhibiting at Katara building 18 from today.
The painter was born in South America but has lived most of his life in Europe and is accustomed to seeing and portraying people of all races. He bases his portraits on images he finds mainly in the media or the internet, choosing those that “talk” to him, he explained.
Only two days before the opening of his exhibition in Katara Cultural Village building 18, he simultaneously supervised the setting up of the show and the last day of a workshop he conducted at the nearby art studios for 14 students. Both these activities are a first for Meyer, given that this is his first exhibition not only in Qatar but also in the region, and the workshop was his first experience of teaching.
The artist arrived in Doha over a week ago to start his workshop and was here in time to receive his paintings, which were shipped from Germany. “It was funny to see them arrive,” he said.
Many of the 13 pieces were painted this year and others in 2012.
“I do a maximum of 40 pieces a year. I began 15 years ago, when the media was basically limited to television and magazines. I scan media and take the faces that talk to me; then I make a photo that stays with me and the painting for six months,” he explained.
For Meyer, during this process, a dialogue takes place between him and the painting. He chooses people who are not famous but appear in the media; who, said Meyer, “wouldn’t recognise themselves because their face undergoes a lot of change.”
“I always take different nationalities because I was born in Brazil and later I lived in Switzerland, France and Germany. Since I was a child I’ve dealt with people from all nationalities,” said the painter.
Meyer, together with the curator of Katara, chose the works that will be on show until June 23. “I was surprised to get a request from an Arabic country, because I always had the idea that they don’t paint faces. However, last year I was at a fair in Istanbul and they really liked my work,” he said.
Meyer is keen on painting faces from “our days”. The collection he has brought to Qatar features two types of paintings -- realistic ones and those in which the faces are, to some extent, distorted. For the painter, these works are not about violence; they are based on a computer-generated image.
“I do it in Photoshop first, and later take it to the canvas. For me, it’s important to not destroy it in a way that the beauty goes away, but also it’s not my aim to paint only beautiful faces,” he stated.
All his paintings are done on a horizontal canvas, a circumstance which, explained the painter, makes them “a little bit more human and gives the sensation that they are frames of a film.”
The free of cost workshop started at Katara Arts studios building 19 on May 7. The classes were held from Sunday to Thursday, from 5 pm to 8 pm, and from 3 pm to 8 pm on Friday and Saturday. The course attracted the interest of a large number of artists and the participants’ selection was based on their level of skill.
The artists who were accepted, including nine Qatari women, got the opportunity to take a closer look at how a painter like Meyer makes his paintings, which have won accolades from critics and art lovers.
In the workshop, the students began by making a short sketch after seeing the projection of a photo on a canvas. They painted with an acrylic palette because oil colours take too long to dry. The pupils were all women except for an Indian painter.
Meyer was happy to meet Qatari artists and foreigners residing in the country. He also expressed admiration for Katara’s efforts to find creative opportunities for convergence between people of different nationalities, as well as his appreciation of the skills of the participants in the workshop.
On their part, the participants in the workshop spoke of their joy at meeting Meyer and learning from his experience and from each other.
Meyer was born in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 1964. He began his art studies in 1987 at the Academy of Art in Karlsruhe, Germany, and has participated in many international art exhibitions over the past 15 years, winning the admiration of critics, which has brought him financial rewards from the sale of his paintings.
