Art Knowledge News
Musee d'Art Moderne Shows Works by Artists Aware that Death was Imminent |
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| Written by Rene Crocker |
| Tuesday, 20 October 2009 03:11 |
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The realisation of impending death conditions our relationship with existence. In particular, the appearance of HIV-Aids in the late 20th century radically changed the perception of life. DEADLINE looks at a number of artists who have died over the last twenty years: very much aware of the approach of death through old age or illness, they imbued their work – paintings, photographs, installations, sculptures, videos – with a fresh intensity that sometimes resulted in unexpected plenitude.  Some of these artists pursued lines of investigation already
begun: Absalon (1964-1993) continued his experiments with 'cells' in
videos of which he himself is the violent protagonist. Joan Mitchell
(1926-1992) stressed the lyrical aspect of her painting, using
deliberately limited means and formal simplification to produce coloured
bouquets. Willem De Kooning (1904-1997) worked in solitude on free,
pared-down paintings that brought a fresh economy of means to the
vocabulary of his preceding period. An explorer of transition, the ephemeral and the vanishing, Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957-1996) is represented by works from throughout his career. Other artists changed more radically in terms of subject matter, form and rhythm: Gilles Aillaud (1928-2005), who had often painted animals in captivity, opted for silence and the occasional painting of birds lost in vast, empty spaces. Hans Hartung (1904-1989) began painting big pictures in an explosively new range of colours. A third group dealt explicitly with the tragic reality of ongoing illness: With the help of assistants, Jőrg Immendorff (1945-2005) found in Renaissance painting a way of continuing his oeuvre. Suffering from an incurable disease, Chen Zhen (1955-2000) approached the body as landscape, inviting the viewer to examine its organs and life's cycles in relationship to different forms of medicine. After initially producing photographic blow-ups of her naked body, Hannah Villiger (1951-1997) tended to conceal its emaciation under shrouds. A last group made death visible in their works: Referencing sculpture and the vanitas, Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) photographed busts and skulls. Quoting Géricault, Martin Kippenberger (1953-1997) portrayed himself in the posed of the survivors of the Raft of the Medusa. James Lee Byars (1932-1997) conjured up an ideal of eternity in a staging of his own death. Artists: Absalon, Gilles Aillaud, James Lee Byars, Chen Zhen, Willem de Kooning, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Hans Hartung, Jőrg Immendorff, Martin Kippenberger, Robert Mapplethorpe, Joan Mitchell, and Hannah Villiger. Click on logo below to add this article to your favorite Social Website ~ |
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