Why try to make old new? Artist Ken Aptekar’s answer: “Only by talking back to paintings do they start to come alive.”
Aptekar, born and raised in Detroit, received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Michigan and a Master of Fine Arts from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. This Tuesday, I had the opportunity to listen to Aptekar speak at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. As a guest for the Penny Stamps Speaker Series and a U-M alum, Aptekar was able to connect with the audience immediately. He was a devoted art student and offered an array of anecdotes about his time at the University decades ago, ranging from blissful accounts of walking into Angell Hall to study to more dire circumstances, like hiding from antisemitic rallies. To keep a long story short, Aptekar’s experiences as a student have allowed him to include a palpable nuance in his artwork that is unique to his lived experience.
In Aptekar’s paintings, he seeks to knock fine art off its pedestal by satirizing old master paintings. In pursuit of this goal, he layers humorous textual anecdotes over historical works. In “Job Security (1991),” Aptekar engages with the idea of toxic masculinity by placing the phrase “job security” on top of Raphael’s “Saint George Fighting the Dragon (1505)” Raphael’s warlike scene of male prowess and strength directly juxtaposes the mundane, 21st-century notion of “job security.” Here, Aptekar responds to a painting of the past, incorporating his humor and perspective into the traditional domain of an Italian Renaissance painting.
Many of Aptekar’s musings draw inspiration from his upbringing in a musical household. Classical symphonies or the consonance of a beautiful harmony spark his imagination unlike anything else. This inspiration can also be found in his art as a kind of muse. Despite his passion for music, his true loyalty lies in the genre of visual art. As Aptekar said, “Music is ephemeral; paintings live on.” His satirical captions allow fine art to remain relevant to 21st-century viewers, adapting and altering the scenes of grand master painters.
Another prong of Aptekar’s identity shows up quite frequently in his work — his religion. Raised in a Jewish household, he was taught from a young age to value his heritage. His parents frequently spoke Yiddish, educated him on the origins of his Hebrew name and expounded the story of Aptekar’s great-grandmother on many accounts. In several of his paintings, Aptekar seems to reminisce on his family history, coining notions like “it’s a Jewish thing.” This phrase plays a role in Aptekar’s piece “I ask questions (2000),” in which he depicts Gustave Courbet’s “L’Immensite” (1869) with a square cut out of the lower fourth of the painting. Written in this scene is “I ask questions, it’s a Jewish thing. Here’s an example: What detail of Gustave Courbet’s seascape would you like me to cut out for you to take home? Chris answers, ‘A little square from the center’.” With these words, Aptekar highlights a key “Jewish thing” by also satirizing a technical, complex emblem of French Realism painting.
Aptekar’s work rapidly changed after the onset of COVID-19, when he was isolated in his home in Burgundy, France. He began to experiment with gouache and gold leaf, ultimately creating evocative, illuminated manuscripts. His projects looked similar to that of early Roman manuscripts, but, in typical Aptekar fashion, they had a satirical voice. Using the aforementioned materials, Aptekar’s manuscripts illustrated images from the COVID-19 pandemic like Clorox disinfectant and Amazon deliveries. Here, Aptekar copes with the minutiae of the COVID-19 crisis by embracing humor in a serious setting. His illuminated manuscripts are almost metaphorical of his approach to the pandemic — bringing laughter into a time of solitude and solemnity.
After listening to Aptekar’s presentation at UMMA, I’ve deemed him a truly expert artist. As he playfully experiments with fine art, as if a grand master painting were simply a blank canvas for him to write on, he unveils complex ideas with each work. It was a pleasure to learn about Aptekar’s career. His daring approach toward classical painting — dismantling the untouchable quality they seem to hold — is moving. He’s inspired me, and most of Tuesday’s attendees, I’m sure, to employ more humor into our work — whether that work be artistic or otherwise. After observing how “talking back to fine art” allowed Aptekar to transform classical paintings, I think we all should “talk back” more ourselves.
Daily Arts Writer Skylar Wallison can be reached at skylarmw@umich.edu.