Contemptible: Nine portraits

Contemptible Nine portraits

Background

While calling authoritarians ‘Contemptible’ may be considered tautology, the nine people selected for these portraits are without doubt authoritarian and contemptible.

The portraits result from a chain of thought that started with the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and a recognition that many have died in the name of populist/nationalist rhetoric and that the despots who initiate authoritarian regimes, despite their corrupt moral compass, crave admiration.

Although portraiture tries to capture the essence of the subject while showing something new about them, I chose to follow a portraiture tradition (in both paint and photography) of flattery and mockery and having selected benign photos of those I considered to be authoritarian, imagined them after a bit of help with a makeup artist, adding props to further disguise their inhumanity as if they were to appear in a popular TV game show, rendering them ridiculous. Blankety Blank anyone?

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1: Angie.

Aung San Su chi - Ex-revolutionary authoritarian.

Despite being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, while still under house arrest and hailed as "an outstanding example of the power of the powerless", Angie presided over the persecution of Myanmar's mostly Muslim Rohingya minority with more than 24.000 dead.

Props via Frida Kahlo

2: Boris.

Boris Johnson - Populist proto-authoritarian.

Boris failed to act during pandemic believing that herd immunity was the best way forward. The delay resulted in more than 50 thousand unnecessary deaths.

Boris also tried illegally to prorogue parliament to ensure his position and initiated the dismantling of the Human rights act.

Props and makeup via Gene Hackman in The French Connection (pork pie hat) and William Wallace.

3: Danny.

Daniel Ortega - Ex revolutionary authoritarian.

As leader of the Sandinista revolution, Danny overturned an incumbent dictator in Nicaragua, but has become a corrupt and authoritarian ruler, turning his back on his revolutionary ideals and coming to resemble the dictator he deposed.

Although Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the ‘Western’ world, Danny brutally puts down opposition: with over 300 dead, and thousands who have ‘disappeared’.

Props via US army surplus stores and makeup by an angry teenager.

4: Donny.

Donald Trump - Populist proto-authoritarian.

Donny Inspired an Insurrection to help hold onto power and slewed the political makeup of the SCOTUS to support him.

His failure to act during the covid pandemic, believing that it was a politically motivated hoax and then that herd immunity was the best way forward, resulted in more than 250k unnecessary deaths.

Props and makeup via The Marx Brothers and Christ.

5: Franki.

Pope Francis - Pure authoritarian.

Franki was voted into power by a small self-interested group of powerful individuals and presides over 1.2 Bn people.

His word is considered infallible, condemning millions to remain in poverty.

Props via Benjamin Zephaniah and Eric Von Stroheim

6: Kim.

Kim Jong Un; Pure authoritarian.

Kim consolidated his power by purging many top officials while continuing to boost the country’s nuclear capabilities.

Although North Korea is among the world’s poorest nations, elite families such as Kim’s hold much of the country’s wealth maintaining fearful obedience in the population through threats of execution, imprisonment, enforced disappearances and forced hard labour in detention and prison camps.

Props inspired by Elton John

7: Marki.

Mark Zuckerberg - Populist proto-authoritarian.

Marki currently presides over 3.6 billion active users of his platforms and while promoting free speech, does nothing to suppress hatefulness and assumes no responsibility for anything published including covid hoax conspiracies that have been responsible for over 500 thousand deaths.

Props via Village people and sk8er culture.

8: Vic

Saddam Hussein - Pure authoritarian .

While imprisoned in Camp Cropper in Baghdad, Saddam chose Vic as a name as he was considered a Very Important Criminal.

Vic’s Ba'th Party created an authoritarian regime based on a system of violence and an extraordinary surveillance network, marked by numerous human rights abuses and an estimated 250,000 arbitrary killings.

Props and makeup via US army surplus and A Clockwork orange

9: Vlad.

Vladimir Putin - Pure Authoritarian.

Although the public are entitled to vote for a new president, Vlad’s manipulation of the system, his populist ambition to consolidate the old Soviet Union and the practice of killing political opponents and journalists results in five continuous terms as president.

Vlad has caused an unknown number of deaths in his wars with Ukraine and other former soviet republics.

Props and makeup inspired by Adam Ant and Napoleon

Blankety Blank anyone?

A portrait

of the artist as a Young Boy.

An early portrait of me taken by my father in Berlin, armed with trumpet and balloon (which I hope was red )

Biography

Born in Germany to army parents, Ronnie initially studied under the Scottish colourist, John Nelson, at the newly opened Stevenson College in Edinburgh.

Living in garrison towns in both England and Germany, summers were spent in Berlin with his German family and while negotiating the impact of both a divided Germany and the Berlin wall, he developed a taste for modernism and an understanding of place; admiring the work of the architects Hans Scharoun and Mies van der Rohe as well as the art of Robert Motherwell and Franz Kline.

Moving to Dundee he studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design before graduating with degrees in Architecture from Dundee University.

Setting up the award winning architectural consultancy CODA Architects, he was able to explore themes that would also inform his Art; themes that were intellectually generated, poetically inspired and reflecting the ’genius Loci ‘ of a place.

Now working full time from his Bristol based studio he produces just twelve to fourteen paintings a year exploring memory and a sense of place and photographs in four main themes : Incident (the everyday stuff of life), Landscape, Architecture and Abstraction.

Biography

Ronnie's work is held in Private and Corporate collections and has been exhibited in Royal Scottish Academy and Royal West of England Academy.

His photographs have been published, used in corporate web sites, selected for public realm use and exhibited in Museums and solo shows.

In 2019 he had a solo show in the Arnolfini Gallery, Research Space in Bristol with Stretto Architects.

In 2020, he had two paintings exhibited in the acclaimed 20 Contemporary Painters exhibition in Centrespace gallery, Bristol.

In 2021 three paintings were shown at Creates Gallery and also in the Swiss Art Expo in Zurich.

In 2022 he held a solo show entitled Finding light in Shadow in the deconsecrated church St Michael on the Mount Without, Bristol.

He is an associate member of Spike Island, Bristol, a member of Architects for Health and part of the Painters network South West.