X-Ray Paintings

X-ray Paintings is a project that brings to light artworks discovered beneath existing paintings through radiographic imaging. It interrogates notions of authorship and originality and opens a dialogue between what is concealed within underlying layers and what remains visible on the surface—between what was presumed forgotten and what endures.

Multiple versions of the same painting are produced, each matching the original’s dimensions, alongside commissioned reproductions of its ‘current’ frame.

View in Pickersgill Harbour, Dusky Bay, New Zealand (after William Hodges) – Version 1
Oil paint and UV screen-print on canvas on wood (no frame)
66.5 x 74.5 cm
2015
© Raul Ortega Ayala, All Rights Reserved
Private collection

View in Pickersgill Harbour, Dusky Bay, New Zealand (after William Hodges) – Version 2
Oil paint and UV screen-print on canvas on wood with commissioned frame
66.5 x 74.5 cm
2015
© Raul Ortega Ayala, All Rights Reserved

View in Pickersgill Harbour, Dusky Bay, New Zealand (after William Hodges) – Version 3
Oil paint and UV screen-print on canvas on wood with commissioned frame
66.5 x 74.5 cm
2015
© Raul Ortega Ayala, All Rights Reserved

Exhibition view at Frans Hals Museum
Photo: GJ.vanROOIJ