Beloved Leader Triple Portraits

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A chance encounter with Anthony van Dyck’s 17th-century Triple Portrait of Charles I led me to try adding one to my series of Beloved Leader paintings, which were inspired by North Korean propaganda paintings. Following van Dyck, whose painting was commissioned to provide Italian sculptor Bernini with source material for a marble bust of the King, I put head-on, three-quarter, and profile views of Mark in one painting. The surprising result was a mysterious sense of interaction among the three Beloved Leaders–a jousting for dominance perhaps, or jealousy over attention, or just an uneasiness with each other.​

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