Beschreibung:

PROPERTY OF A EUROPEAN COLLECTION Sherrie Levine Skull 2001 bronze skull, wood and glass vitrine skull: 5 1/8 x 5 1/8 x 6 3/4 in. (13 x 13 x 17 cm) vitrine: 69 1/8 x 20 x 20 in. (175.5 x 50.7 x 50.7 cm) This work is from an edition of 12.
Provenance Galerie Jablonka, Cologne Exhibited London, Simon Lee, Sherrie Levine June 20 – August 17, 2007 (another example exhibited) New York, Nyehaus, Sherrie Levine September 12 – October 27, 2007 (another example exhibited) Literature D. Thorp, Sherrie Levine Simon Lee Gallery & Nyehaus 2007, p. 26 (another example illustrated) Catalogue Essay Sherrie Levine’s poetic explorations span a wide array of mediums, including photography, painting and sculpture, while explicitly examining the phenomenon of authorship. Much of her practice centers on the appropriation and transformation of modern masterworks. Levine is perpetually haunted by the ghost of Duchamp; a spectre that she attempts to exorcise by undermining his technique and subverting the lineage of modern art itself. Through her artistic process, Levine transcends the symbolic nature of the original art object and readymade, imbuing her appropriated work with entirely different meaning and material. Both psychologically powerful and aesthetically seductive, Skull, 2001, is one of Levine’s most significant explorations into re-contextualizing the found object. It’s smooth, polished bronze surface embodies Levine’s artistic mastery over transforming unorthodox material into precious object. As with Fountain (After Marcel Duchamp , 1991, Levine’s mechanism of appropriation for Skull, 2001, involves the direct casting of a sculptural source. Levine explores the similarities between our fetishization of naturally occurring anthropological remains and opulent art objects through reducing her skull to a size characteristic of a collectible and protecting it within a glass vitrine. The human skull carries a rich historical weight; from classical sacred object, to contemporary curio, to luxury novelty. We may group much of Levine’s work with prominent artists both historical and contemporary, for whom the human skull has also been a source of fascination. What separates Levine, however, is her legacy of challenging stereotypes of feminine art and male dominated originality. As she explains, “It’s not that I don’t think that the word originality means anything or has no meaning. I just think it’s gotten a very narrow meaning lately. What I think about in terms of my work is broadening the definitions of the word ‘original’.” (Sherrie Levine quoted in J. Siegel, “After Sherrie Levine ” Arts Magazine 59, June/Summer 1985, pp.141-44) within each. Read More