Vanessa Beecroft
Vanessa Beecroft, born 1969 in Genoa, Italy, lives and works in Los Angeles. Vanessa Beecroft does images live. Even though most viewers probably only know her works through photographs and videos, it's the staging and theatricality of the live event that make these images of women, whose vacancy and seductive appeal are equally pronounced, so compelling. In Beecroft's body arrangements, there is a charged and yet restrained atmosphere created by the tension between broken taboos and ancient ideals of beauty, between eroticism and the charm of naked show-window dummies. The artist makes contemporary versions of the complex figurative compositions that have challenged painters from the Renaissance onwards.
Vanessa Beecroft Editions
The Sister Project
2004
Calendar with 13 high gloss laminated prints, 42 x 60 cm (16½ x 23½ in) each. Edition of 300, signed and numbered.
Since the 1990s, Vanessa Beecroft has been using performance art to critically reflect on social issues. Her strictly choreographed, often naked models question the relationship between the body, sexuality, image and the fashion industry. Photography plays a central role in this – both as documentation and as an independent art form. In this edition, Sister Project (2000), Vanessa Beecroft stages her sister Jennifer in twelve large-format photographs inspired by classic nudes. Through variations in light and color, each image reflects the mood of a particular month, turning the model's body into a painterly medium of expression.
EUR 350
Vogue Hommes
2002
From Double Exposure
Two pigment prints on photo rag paper, 61 x 49 cm (24 x 19¼ in) each. Edition of 45, with a signed and numbered certificate.
Vanessa Beecroft's edition Vogue Hommes (2002) focuses on the contrast between masculinity and femininity: a naked, upside-down woman is staged next to a formally dressed man in front of the Palace of Justice in Milan. Despite her nudity, the woman appears strong and self-confident, while the man appears less free in his role as a businessman. The staging of this edition breaks with classic gender representations and emphasizes female strength.
Set EUR 3,000
