MASTERS highlights Joseph Klibansky's iconic artworks each week in this four-part series. As Joseph explains, "My art is a reflection on society. Certain things I highlight and blow up in the form of a monumental image. I put that back into society so that the beholders can have a moment of reflection. "Text: Bart - Jan Brouwer
Online editing: Noa Verseveldt
Image: studio Joseph Klibansky
"I built this sculpture for a brand new area development in China. Offices and stores are being built there, subways constructed. Client is Vanke, the fifth largest real estate developer in China. A huge project. The developers wanted a large artwork at a busy intersection, where everyone passes by. A work of art makes the environment livable, without it it remains sterile. The sculpture, in stainless steel and with highly polished bronze clouds, reaches for the galaxy at eight meters. It fits within the astronaut theme. I myself would love to go into space. If it gets a little available and some people have already been there before me, I'm going to buy a ticket. I really do have a hundred thousand dollars for that."
"My most recent work is by far the most detailed we have ever made. Astronauts I see as the forefront of technology. Nothing is more advanced than the suits they wear. These must guarantee their survival in space. They explore the new frontiers, walking ahead of humanity to see if, for example, life is possible on Mars. In this artwork I have fused an astronaut with the mask of Tutankhamun, who, as the most iconic figure and most recognizable face from Egyptian antiquity, represents for me the oldest form of civilization. On the artwork, I make use of hieroglyphics. These are not just some loose Egyptian signs, all the hieroglyphics used correspond to the Egyptian Book of the Dead (a collection of spells that went with the deceased into the grave with the purpose of providing protection against dangers in the afterlife - a kind of travel guide for the journey through the underworld; ed.). That's why I worked with a professor of Egyptology. Going through books, studying documents, doing research... We spent a year and a half making this piece. The scale model is finished. I named the work Valley of the Kings, because that is where the intact tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun was discovered in 1922."
"My paintings are thought paintings, screenshots of thoughts I have about a certain period of time. I made this painting for my show at Museum de Fundatie. That was a pretty turbulent time: a relationship of mine broke up. My emotions fluctuated between in love, angry and frustrated. I captured those moments of ups & downs like a polaroid in the painting. My soul projected on the canvas. This work (7.20 meters wide x 2.70 meters high) will hang in the apartment I just bought in Dubai. There I want to invite people to show how to live with art. People often choose practical sizes, but if you really want to make a statement, you hang a painting across the entire width of your living room. That is so powerful!
"A very detailed work of art, partly because the wings are made of feathers. The design takes time, but the physical production that follows can just as easily take a year: making scale models, making adjustments, going through the whole process of bronze casting... Pinocchio is a wooden doll that has to be honest to become a real boy. I find that very evocative. We all go through life with certain desires and goals. How do we walk that path to success? You see the nose has grown, so to get ahead he has used lies to get ahead. But he still has his wings. People can make mistakes, but does that make them bad? How many mistakes do you have to make before you cross the line from good to bad?"
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