POOR TRAITS

Who ever resisted the childish temptation of messing up with a pen, at least once, a celebrity’s photo? Everyone loves to challenge perfect beauty through an iconoclastic act of revenge, especially when perfection is artificial, the ordinary result of make up artists, hair stylists and digital retouchers. Messing up with a portrait, in this case, reestablishes a balance with reality. The over-retouched photo, under the hand of a frustrated nobody, returns to its original imperfection. The cheap & kitsch pastime of messing up with photos is definitely trivial. Its goal, after all, is limited and consumed between the brackets of a flighty moment. Nobody ever consider to elevate it to an art form.

But if you happen by sheer luck, as it happened to me, to bump into the work of Paul Verkaufentoll, you are confronted with a game-changing paradox, a revelation. The epiphany pushes you to redefine the whole concept of art altogether. The powerful, creative incursions of his pen are funny, stratified, unsettling. His artistic happenings are rapid, expert and, with just a few strokes, he can change people’s features beyond recognisability. Beyond individual existence and persistence of the self. Verkaufentoll calls them Poor Traits, intentionally underlining the cheap pun implied by this definition. Each artwork comes in triple triplets, nine portraits patched together following a rigorous grid, printed and framed on large posters. Verakufentoll says that, by grouping celebrities together, each star loses his or her own individual status. They all take part in the tragicomical stage of life, each one participating to form a proud crowd of alienated, surreal monsters.

It’s guerrilla art – Verkaufentool continues, quietly sipping black coffee in his studio, a spacious warehouse with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the port of Hamburg, – it’s not even art, it’s just a crap-act of disrespect toward the false idols of our era. My Poor Traits force you to rethink your role and scope in this world. I produced, until now, more than 200 triple triplets. No one will escape from the burning flame of my pen. Celebrities call me, every now and then. They want their face insulted and violated. I think most of them are insecure masochists. They need to find their own center of gravity, balancing between being idolised and brutalised. The only person I save from the wild bunch of decaying stardom is Claire Danes. She’s stunning, yet down to earth. A woman like no other. I’ll never dare to make a Poor Trait of her.

Paul Verkaufentoll lives and works between Hamburg and Milan. His artwork is promoted and represented by Brandpowder. Because of his inveterate aversion to social media and digital platforms, Verkaufentoll’s online presence is defined by his total absence. Accused of being a snob, he confirmed.

If you want Verkaufentoll to make your Poor Trait, please contact us at postmaster@brandpowder.com. We will provide you with a cost estimate and deadline. Actual waiting list is about six months.