‘I paint the kind of people I’m attracted to’: Hernan Bas on hiding from the world in Venice

The Cuban-American artist likes to paint pretty young white men – inspired by his fascination with Holden Caulfield. So why do his portraits have a sinister edge? Hernan Bas has been living in Venice this year, painting tourists. He’s aware of the ironies. (He is the kind of tourist, he tells me, who started looking at Venetian property prices, oh, about a week into his stay.) The Cuban-American artist is from Miami, and he knows about mass tourism all too intimately: he lives in an neighbourhood that has now been so thoroughly colonised by Airbnbs that when he comes home from the airport, taxi drivers ask him where he’s visiting from, and he has to explain that no, this is his own house.

“I can pretend nothing’s happening in the world. For a moment his mind drifts back despairingly to his home town and the fraught politics of his country. “It was so mind boggling how much the Latin community went for Trump, and now everyone is eating dirt because they’re hiding from ICE,” he says. “Those same people who were gung ho for Trump are now getting deported.” Continue reading... Interview Charlotte Higgins The Cuban-American artist likes to paint pretty young white men – inspired by his fascination with Holden Caulfield.

H ernan Bas has been living in Venice this year, painting tourists. He’s aware of the ironies. (He is the kind of tourist, he tells me, who started looking at Venetian property prices, oh, about a week into his stay.) The Cuban-American artist is from Miami , and he knows about mass tourism all too intimately: he lives in an neighbourhood that has now been so thoroughly colonised by Airbnbs that when he comes home from the airport, taxi drivers ask him where he’s visiting from, and he has to explain that no, this is his own house. For a moment his mind drifts back despairingly to his home town and the fraught politics of his country. “It was so mind boggling how much the Latin community went for Trump, and now everyone is eating dirt because they’re hiding from ICE,” he says.

The young men are like aliens; they might have dropped by from outer space. The figures in the paintings are all young men – young white men. The show is in Venice for a reason.” Explore more on these topics Share Reuse this content The Cuban-American artist likes to paint pretty young white men – inspired by his fascination with Holden Caulfield. Hernan Bas has been living in Venice this year, painting tourists. He’s aware of the ironies.

(He is the kind of tourist, he tells me, who started looking at Venetian property prices, oh, about a week into his stay.) The Cuban-American artist is from Miami, and he knows about mass tourism all too intimately: he lives in an neighbourhood that has now been so thoroughly colonised by Airbnbs that when he comes home from the airport, taxi drivers ask him where he’s visiting from, and he has to explain that no, this is his own house. For a moment his mind drifts back despairingly to his home town and the fraught politics of his country. “It was so mind boggling how much the Latin community went for Trump, and now everyone is eating dirt because they’re hiding from ICE,” he says. “Those same people who were gung ho for Trump are now getting deported.” Continue reading... ‘I paint the kind of people I’m attracted to’: Hernan Bas on hiding from the world in Venice