Reverse

REVERSE explores the back side of portrait busts, created by Dutch product and interior designer Thomas Eurlings. His fascination began after seeing a photo of the back of a bust of Marie Antoinette at the Museum of Modern Art in Houston (featured on the cover). The back, rich in details like curls, braids, pearls, and ribbons, presents a modern silhouette. Eurlings found it intriguing that you could explore these details without anyone looking back at you, creating both distance and intimacy.

Arthur Japin wrote the foreword for REVERSE. “Reverse is unique because it makes us aware of something that has always been there but that we now see differently. Eurlings invites readers to view art from a new perspective.”
In REVERSE, Eurlings has curated nearly 200 images across 20 chapters. These vary in periods, materials, techniques, or groups. The oldest bust is of Akhenaten from ancient Egypt, and the most recent is of King Charles III from 1981, when he was still Prince of Wales. While the book spans many centuries, it is primarily a visual journey that offers a fresh perspective on portrait busts. Eurlings’ introductions provide historical context, insight into materials and techniques, and are supplemented with personal observations.

“For sculptors, the front of a portrait is dictated by the rules of likeness, decorum, and status. The back, however, offers much more freedom. It is the often overlooked domain in art history of balding crowns and imaginative braids, gracefully draped veils, and bumpy neck wrinkles, as well as supports and unfinished surfaces. There, we find the traces of the sculptor’s hands in their purest form.”
— Frits Scholten, Senior Curator of Sculpture, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Thomas Eurlings (Leiden, 1983) is a Dutch designer, a graduate of the Design Academy Eindhoven. His studio, ThomasE. Creations, designs interior products, jewelry, and complete interiors. In addition, Eurlings is an avid art collector with a special interest in photography. Reverse is his first book, with which he aims to offer a fresh perspective on the concept of the portrait bust. He invites readers to discover a new dimension in these sculptures, where the back is just as captivating as the front.