Surreal Portraits by Doug Auld

Surreal Celebrity Portraits

In the late 80’s, I began a series of paintings that explored the possibility of two co- existing visual realities. A specific, recognizable face and a consistent living environment . The series culminated in 1993 with fifteen paintings .

My goal was to interpret the compositional aspects of a particular portrait in which the viewer could verify within an equally believable living environment . If successful, the paintings would demonstrate the mathematical possibility of two co-existing visual realities for a brief moment in time.

Within this visual game, care had to be taken in considering the scale and proportion of the various creatures and their relation to each other, all while solving the overall portrait . This criteria separated my images from collage or computer generated images. A famous face was chosen in order to enable the viewer to participate in the completion of the image, by way of their own memory and reference point. The choice I made to combine a particular life form with a particular face was instinctual more than direct or literal. An intense face or personality would be combined with an analogues environment. However, sometimes there were more obvious or literal choices for certain subjects.

Artistic Influences I credit to this work include Giuseppe Arcimboldo, the 16th century Italian painter who made faces composed of fruit, the surrealist painter Salvador Dali, and the pop images of Andy Warhol and contemporary artist Chuck Close with his large portraits composed of many small marks within a grid system.

History

The release of ten new images of the Surreal Celebrity Portraits in Limited Edition Print is the first publication of these works since the series was completed in 1993.

• Featured in the new Marilyn in Art book celebrating Marilyn's 80th Birthday published in 2006.
• Commissioned portrait of Jim Morrison for MTV's "Museum of Unnatural History"
• Featured on Sun up San Diego, morning TV program.
• Featured on CBS, Entertainment Tonight, NYC,USA
• Permanent installation of light box images in CLUB NV, SoHo, NYC, USA
• One Man Show at The Bergen Museum of Art and Science , NJ, USA
• One Man Show at Drew University with Governor Tom Kean NJ,USA
• One Man Show at The Limelight ,NYC,USA
• Published four Limited Edition Silkscreen Prints.
• Featured in the Salvador Dali newsletter.
• Featured on Inside New Jersey WNET TV-Channel 13, NJ,USA
• 1993 Absolut Vodka Artist of the Year original painting created for Absolut shown in publications through out the year. see image link
• 1993 Fall Group show at The Time is Always Now Gallery, SoHo ,NYC,USA