Sean Kelly is delighted to present a carefully curated selection of historic and contemporary works by leading international artists, each of whom addresses classic themes of beauty, artistic tradition, museological context, and historical intention through their work in photography, painting, and sculpture.
German artist Candida Höfer's meticulously composed, large-scale color images of architectural interiors explore the structure, presentation, and influence of space. Interested in the psychological impact of design and the contrast between a room's intended and actual use, Höfer often focuses her lens on museum interiors such as in Hermitage St. Petersburg VIII, 2014. Whilst devoid of people, these images allow us to reconsider the power of the objects that populate cultural spaces and their resonance in the contemporary moment. British artist Antony Gormley is internationally recognised for his sculptural practice that investigates the relationship of the human body to space and questions where human beings stand in relation to nature, the cosmos, and time. A classical marble, Roman torso of Isis-Aphrodite, c. 1st century BC, is paired with Gormley's SMALL FORM V, 2014, prompting one to consider how sculpture has been used to represent the body across geological and biological time, and to reflect on current conversations surrounding conceptions of value and hierarchy in art.
French artist Laurent Grasso's ongoing series, 'Studies into the Past', explores ideas at the intersection of natural phenomena, truth and illusion, science, and history, to explore the influential symbolism of celebrated works of art. Featuring a new work on canvas that appropriates the impressionist visual language of Claude Monet's iconic Houses of Parliament, 1899–1901, which are found in the world's greatest museums, Grasso gives his painting an otherworldly and modern twist by placing the buildings under a sky illuminated by two suns, referencing his own film Soleil Double, which features an imaginary place and time bathed in shifting light emanating from dual suns.
The resonant power of art historical objects also influences the work of British artist Idris Khan and American artist Kehinde Wiley. Khan created Caravaggio...The Final Years, in 2006, one year after seeing an exhibition of the same title at the National Gallery in London of late work by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. This photograph was constructed by digitally layering multiple images of Caravaggio's late paintings into one work; the resulting image is almost painterly in form, with its contrast between light and dark, and interplay of transparency and opacity. Barthélémy Senghor and Mame Kéwé Aminata Lô, both 2020, are bronze sculptures by Kehinde Wiley that take inspiration from the work of 18th century French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon, whose own sculpture was heavily influenced by styles of the Baroque and Antique periods. Wiley has applied these techniques to render his contemporary Senegalese subjects with gravity and dignity.
French artist Yves Klein and Serbian artist Marina Abramović, have each used their work to break down hierarchies in art and traditional divisions between art and life. Klein is represented by two iconic works that illustrate his long interest in the metaphysical and the immaterial, Leap Into the Void, October 27, 1960, and Sculpture éponge bleue sans titre (SE 315), 1960–1961. Klein's sponge and Abramović's Portrait with Golden Mask, 2009 each explore the symbolic and historic resonances of pure colour as an expression of nature, purity, the primal, and the ceremonial.
Altogether, the works included in this presentation and the provocative juxtapositions they evoke allow for nuanced conversations about what connects art aesthetically and ideologically across time, while echoing current critical discussions surrounding the reframing of the history of art.
Sean Kelly represents these artists: