ART-PRESENTATION: Sculpture 4tet

The exhibition “Sculpture 4tet”, a four-man show, asks two simple questions. What is sculpture? and how can certain contemporary artworks benefit from a critical reflection on the ancient term, sculpture? These questions are anything but simple of course, given the formal breakdown of 20th Century Αrt. Sculpture, Ιnstallation, seemingly random arrangement of random objects, the definitions are slippery.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Marian Goodman Archive

“Sculpture 4tet” brings together works from Luciano Fabro, Jean-Luc Moulène, Bruce Nauman and Danh Vo. Each artist, takes the myths and methods of classical sculpture and renews them but never forgets them. And all reference the human figure, if sometimes by its absence. Fabro’s “Sisofo”, for example, plays beautifully with Sisyphus’ rock, and the eternal, absurd human struggle of its endless up and down. Here the rock is a more elegant, if still relentless, roller. Moulène’s “Knot-Knot” adds a distorted blue lump to a muscular steel frame while elsewhere he plays with grotesque masks. Nauman’s “Shit in Your Hat – Head On A Chair” is, indeed, a head on a chair backed by a video installation while Vo’s “Do you know what she did, your cunting daughter?” balances a 14th century wooden Madonna on top of a Greek marble sarcophagus from the 2nd century AD, a sort of classicist’s readymade. Each of the artists, in their own way, can be considered an enemy of amnesia. Mythology, history of art, personal memory and rumours of past events are as much materials as the marble, metal or neon with which they work. The human figure, often taking fragmentary or more metaphorical forms, pervades the works and it is thus the even older concept of the “Statue” that echoes in the back and forth of associations of the exhibition.

Info Curator: Jean-Pierre Criqui, Marian Goodman Gallery, 5-8 Lower John Street, London, Duration: 12/1-20/2/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, http://mariangoodman.com