Goff+Rosenthal is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Berlin-based artist Cornelia Renz. Entitled Sub Rosa, this body of work incorporates Renz’s style of layered painting with imagery reminiscent of Italian Renaissance masterpieces by Botticelli, Bronzino, and others. Sub Rosa, a Latin term originating from Greek mythology, implies confidentiality, usually with illicit connotations. The Rose, a symbol of silence, was often seen in Renaissance Rome above banquet tables as a visual reminder to guests of their freedom to speak candidly as all conversations were “under the rose” and thus in confidence.

Renz’s previous works focus on young, almost prepubescent, girls in carnivalesque attire and ironically misogynist situations, “These young women are not unknowing Alice-like innocents, there is no ‘sugar and spice and all things nice’ to be appended to these Justines, Juliets or Lolitas…They challenge the stereotypes and male-dominated assumptions, the patriarchal constructions that men attempt to impose on women.”1 In Sub Rosa, Renz turns her focus to matriarchies and the private sphere. “In the private sphere, as opposed to the public sphere, power is more often exercised by women- the mothers or grandmothers. In modern families the father is becoming more and more absent leaving no one to control the female authority and allowing a shift of power from male to female and, inevitably, an abuse of power, but by the female.” In Renz’s latest series, the male subjects are shown in passive positions-sleeping in the nude, breast-feeding- but each work is imbibed with a sexualized undercurrent, bringing into question the roles of these female “nurturers”.

By reversing the gaze from female to male, Renz’s Sub Rosa is truly feminist in theory, although she also reveals the women as manipulators, exploiting and enjoying their position of power within the private family sphere.




Top:
Slumber 2007
Pigmentmarker and collage on paper
160 x 230 cms




Left:
Double 00, 2007
Pigmentmarker and collage on paper
62 x 43.2cms



Below:
Folie Fades, 2007
Pigmentmarker and collage on paper
62 x 43.2cms