Atelier Van Lieshout

Green Madonna

2021

Mixed media
62 x 80 x 183 cm

The Madonna and child Michelangelo carved from marble in 1505 is a melancholic sculpture. Maria’s sad look betrays her knowledge of her child’s future and the toddler Christ hangs at her knee as if grasping at the last scraps of childhood. Atelier Van Lieshout’s Green Madonna exudes the opposite atmosphere to Michelangelo’s masterpiece. The child has combatively raised itself up and the mother is determined to protect her progeny – so much so in fact, that she has merged with her weapon that calls to mind Soviet workers’ tools. Their camouflage makes them unseen and changes their nudity into a sort of body painted armour. Both stare like militant proletarians in old Soviet posters confidently in the same direction, into a future situated somewhere beyond the viewer.

Green Madonna (2021) was part of the following exhibition(s):
EHBO, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam (NL), 2021 – 2022

For enquiries: please contact Atelier Van Lieshout via info@ateliervanlieshout.com