For her work V.R., artist Franziska Kneidl painted transparent plastic film with yellow, orange, and red acrylic and lacquer paint. Draped voluminously in overlapping layers in the form of a baroque dress, the film–attached to a metal ring hanging from the ceiling–seems to envelop an invisible body. The experimental and at the same time fragile character of the art object is reminiscent of a design for a lavish court gown.
The artist, who trained as a scenic painter for the theater before studying at the Städelschule, cites Diego Velázquez’s depictions of the Spanish Infanta Margarita Teresa in a baroque hoop skirt in the mid-seventeenth century as the inspiration for this work, to which the “V.” in the title alludes. Through the interplay of color, translucency, and drapery, V.R. is a sculpture that transforms into a painting in space and at the same time expresses Kneidl’s personal enthusiasm for fashion.