LOVE IS IN THE AIR!!!
Love is all
around us, love is all we need and even if I’m not usually a romantic at heart
I might be inspired by Valentine’s Day. It was originally a feast organized by
the Catholic Church and destined to celebrate physical love. Father Valentinus,
dead on February 14 (one doesn’t know what year exactly), gave his name to this
event. During Renaissance and Classicism, artists painted lovers, love stories
and their paintings were full of erotic and sexual symbols. In the modern and contemporary
art scene it’s not uncommon that artists choose their mistresses to be their
muses. Some of them also work together on one unique piece.
Jeff Koons (an
American artist born in 1955) and Ilona Staller (the “Cicciolina”, a
Hungarian-born porn star) were one of the most famous couple that worked
together. Known for his giant reproductions of banal objects such as balloon
animals produced in stainless steel with mirror finish surfaces, Koons also
made a series of paintings, photographs and sculptures that showed the couple
in various sexual acts: Made in Heaven,
a series that aroused much controversy and critics, specially during the first
exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 1990. Most of the works were unveiled in
1991. These works of art describe Koons’ excursion into the world of
glamour-porn and are the witness of their love and their passion. Many works
from this series were destroyed by Koons himself as a result of these events
and the exhibition at the Guggenheim has been questioned several times and
finally canceled. This series is one of the most important of his work and
according to him the most sincere, the most radical and the most risky.
Less risky but
equally radical, work made by Sophie Calle (a French artist born in 1953) is
like a diary, her diary. She is a visual artist, a writer, a photograph, a
movie director…. She uses many different mediums to produce art pieces
extremely provocative and subversive. No Sex Last Night, also known as Double Blind, is a personal and intimate movie that traces, like
a diary, an escapade with her lover Gregg Shepard (an American photographer
born in 1949) from the East coast to the West coast of the US. This road trip
will ended up in a wedding chapel in Las Vegas. There are two versions of the
videos: when Gregg films Sophie makes comments in French and the other way
around. This picture was taken from a video made after reconciliation in bed!
She invites the viewer to get into her universe that question relationship
between human being. One no longer speaks of individual identity but of the
identity of the couple…
One of Sophie’s
video was exhibited in the same show (Emporte moi, Sweep me off my feet, Mac/Val, Vitry, France, 2009) than The
Kiss made by Ange Leccia (a French artist
born in 1952). He’s best know for
his photographs and videos. He’s also a painter, a movie director and has made
a lot of installations. Through this installation, Leccia shows us his own
interpretation of the feeling and the signification of love and kiss. A kiss is
an act extremely intimate and decisive in a loving relationship, isn’t it? This
installation is made with two big brutes that face each other, like two human
mouths just about to kiss each other. They don’t touch each other, which
intensifies excitement and arousal that precedes the first kiss. Pink color and
brightness also give to this work his strength.
Rose
remains essentially the symbol itself of love and passion. It’s a privileged
gift given by all lovers all over the world. Will Ryman (an American artist
born in 1969) knew how to do justice to this beautiful and mysterious flower.
Well known for his huge and figurative sculptures that represent some kind of
caricature of the human race, he brings us, with his roses, to a wonderland
that might reminds us the one of Alice. In 2011, a public exhibition took place
on Park Avenue. An exhibition in favor of the roses. They were gigantic, the
height of a human being of average size. The colors are vibrant, bright and
cover all the tonalities from pink to red. Furthermore it’s not uncommon to see
ladybugs, dragonflies and other small beasts climb along the stems… About the
exhibition he said: “With
these roses I wanted to do something that was larger than life and
site-specific. In my work I always try to combine fantasy with reality. In the
case of The Roses, I tried to convey New York City’s larger than life qualities through
scale; creating blossoms which are imposing, humorous, and hopefully
beautiful »[1]
HAPPY
VALENTINE’S DAY!!
No comments:
Post a Comment