The controversy of Mary

The Holy Virgin Mary, 1996
Chris Ofili (British, b.1968)

In celebration of Banned Books Week, I am going to focus on banned or controversial artists. Oh how we wish these recognition weeks weren't necessary but continued controversy over books such as To Kill a Mockingbird, Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland and Tango Makes Three still persist. I'll always remember the controversy set by the Sensation show at the Brooklyn Museum in New York in 1999. Then mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, denounced the show without even seeing it and one of the most talked about works (despite some much more difficult and actually disturbing work in the show) was Chris Ofili's, The Holy Virgin Mary. The work was actually defaced with white paint by a man in the gallery.


"Chris Ofili's Holy Virgin Mary" by Jerry Saltz (artnet magazine 10-8-99)

Negative Space

Untitled (Paperbacks)
Rachel Whiteread
1997. Plaster and steel, Overall 14' 9 1/8" x 15' 9" x 20' 8 3/4" (450 x 480 x 632 cm).
Museum of Modern Art

It has been brought to my attention that I've focused a bit on painting thus far so to break from that mold, I am going to spend this week concentrating on introducing some sculpture to the mix. Today's work is by Rachel Whiteread whom I've been intrigued by for years. Whiteread casts the negative space created by objects. Early works included the casting of domestic objects such as bathtubs and chairs (both of which were at the Sensation show I mentioned in the post on Jenny Saville).

I've seen this work at MoMA and find it is pretty fantastic. You can see the traces of shapes and colors of the bindings of the books. It starts out as intriguing, then a bit unsettling, trying to figure out where the books would be, then comforting, since despite the lack of the physical books, its amazing how their presence is still felt. If you check the link in the title, you can hear a brief bit of Whiteread explaining the work. I've seen many of Whiteread's works of the years, the Albright Knox purchased jointly with the Carnegie Museum of Art, the negative space of a staircase, Untitled (Domestic). This is also the first time I'd heard of a joint purchase, but apparently its becoming more common with the exorbitant prices of work today.

She won the Turner Prize for casting a victorian house.

The Figure

Reverse, 2003
Jenny Saville
oil on canvas
84x96"
Gagosian Gallery

I would like to do a theme again this week, that of the figure. I plan on focusing on contemporary painting for it but may veer. The figure in painting today is fascinating for many reasons, particularly because many aren't aware of how much brilliant technical painting is being done today. These paintings go way beyond technique in their rich fullness and bold size (check out the dimension of this work). They really stand out on my new shiny laptop screen too!

Most of Saville's paintings focus on the reality of flesh and the figure, with more of the body exposed than this image of Saville's head on its side. Reverse is new to me, my research on Saville today introducing me to it and I can't seem to stop looking at it.

Jenny was discovered while still in art school, her massive paintings meeting with commercial and critical success. I've been familiar with Saville since the touring exhibition, Sensation, at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 1999. The show's contents caused a ruckus, though Saville's work was not amongst the highly protested works (see Damien Hirst and Chris Ofili). I remember much of the work in the show, but Saville's painting, Plan, stuck with me.

The Brooklyn Museum just put their collections online and is looking for YOU to help them tag their objects, to make searching easier. Play the Tag Game You're it!