French Artist Mathias Kiss On Breaking Out Of The Frame
Often known as the man with the golden hand, French artist Mathias Kiss is on a mission to break down the barriers of tradition
French-Hungarian Mathias Kiss was, by his own admission, an unruly child. At school, his teachers were constantly reprimanding him for talking during lessons and playing the clown to his audience of classmates.
His strict father was not amused. When the school informed him that his 14-year-old son had locked the teacher out of the classroom, his father lost no time in removing him from school and enrolling him at the French craftsmanship guild association, Les Compagnons du Devoir (The Companions of Duty) to train to master a skill such as his mother’s, a master art-framer.
The emblem of Les Compagnons du Devoir was a compass and sextant; it taught precision, discipline and respect in an atmosphere of extreme rectitude.“I never got to be a teenager, there were no parties, pals or girlfriends,” says Mathias.
“At Les Compagnons, perfectly executed work was never praised. The attitude was: ‘It was perfect before, you have merely restored its perfection, so praise is unwarranted.” During his apprenticeship, he learned, to perfection, the meticulous, centuries-old art of trompe-l’oeil painting, the restoration of antiques, the application of gold leaf, cutting mirrors, carving marble and wood – and making art frames.
When he was fully qualified, the artist restored priceless masterpieces in the Louvre, and toured France, restoring historic monuments. After 14 years, he finally decided to break free. He poured his pent-up artistic rage into creating immersive installations and sculptural pieces in a process he has named “Brutalist Ornamentation.”
The ‘brutalisation’ of these ornamental forms means releasing them from the immobility in which they were held prisoner. With a restrained monochrome palette of gold, black, white, silver and reflective surfaces, he uses his mastery of ‘difficult’ noble materials – mirror, gold leaf and marble – to free classical architectural elements from their historical context, deconstructing them as a way of questioning craftsmanship and the artist’s approach to it.
His work challenges many fixed ideas – the value of gold; the bourgeois conception of decorative objects; and crucially, the perceived chasm between the artist and the artisan. His classic frames and moulded cornices, blown out of proportion and without right angles, his trompe l’oeil landscapes, and crumpled or fragmented mirrors take on a new lease of life placed in contemporary settings.
Mathias’ mirrors break free of their traditional established function. Instead of passively reflecting the image in front of them, his mirrors are introspective, spilt into prisms, the faceted planes infinitely scrutinising and dialoguing with themselves.
His ornamental frames chase after the objects they were supposed to enclose, winding and snaking upwards. Instead of remaining horizontal, his ‘Golden Snake’ launches itself into the void, filling space vertically instead of delineating it. Many of his works have been exhibited in national modern art museums, including the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the TEFAF in Maastricht and the Museo Villa Dei Cedri di Bellinzona in Switzerland.
In situ #3 is an installation in thousands of miniscule squares of gold leaf laid on the floor of the chapel of the Mobilier National in Paris. “This refers back to my time at Les Compagnons when I was restoring the gold of the French Republic, that monarchical gold that I’m now trying to desecrate! I enjoyed seeing how people interacted with the floor. Some tiptoed carefully around the edges not to damage it, others tramped across it, deliberately leaving a trail of footprints to mark their passage, some even purposely dragged their feet to mar the perfection – and maybe to find some traces of gold on their soles of their shoes!”
Besoin d’air (In Need of Air) is an installation first exhibited in the atrium of the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille in 2020. An overflowing rectangular ‘pool’ of mirrored glass is positioned directly beneath a trompe l’oeil skyscape of storm clouds, painted onto transparent plastic squares. The moody sky reflected in the pool below results in a deeply contemplative piece.
The artist has just moved into a new atelier in Paris, which is his home and workplace. He is hosting an open house until 11 February 2021 to present his work in progress. Private viewings of his work outside of this time can be arranged by appointment.
To learn more about the artist, click here.
Photography by David Zagdoun
From the Winter 2020 issue of Harper’s Bazaar Interiors, The Art Issue