I'm Kenney Mencher. I'm an artist who left a tenured professorship in 2016 to pursue making art full time. This blog is about art, art history, with a emphasis on human rights. I make homoerotic art featuring bears, otters & other gay wildlife.
One day while meditating,
Saint Anthony of Padua witnessed a vision of the infant Jesus who
miraculously appeared to come forth from the saint’s book. The original
pop-up book was born. El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos), Saint Anthony of Padua, c. 1586, oil on canvas. Museo nacional del Prado, Madrid
El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos), Saint Anthony of Padua, c. 1586, oil on canvas. Museo nacional del Prado, Madrid Evidently the pop-up baby Jesus above was a later addition to this painting by El Greco. WTF? Check out the Prado’s site for more info on the painting. [BTW, the writing on the outer pages of the book is apparently El Greco’s signature] Pop-up Jesus can also be
seen in other paintings of Saint Anthony of Padua, each time
increasingly larger, like the right wing of an altarpiece by Gerard
David or a charming image by Murillo.
Gerard David, Saint Anthony of Padua (detail of the Saint Michael Altarpiece), c. 1510, oil on panel Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Gerard David, Saint Michael Altarpiece, c. 1510, oil on panel Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Saint Anthony of Padua, c. 1666, oil on canvas. Museo Provincial de Bellas Artes, Seville
Over the years I've made a series of warm and cool monochromatic paintings. Mainly because I felt like they really shared a lot with the film nor things I grew up with. I thought I'd share some of them with you guys here: