Lucas Samaras

Acquired directly from the artist

Paris, Galerie Renos Xippas, Lucas Samaras, September - October 1991
New York, PaceWildenstein, Lucas Samaras: Kiss Kill - Perverted Geometry - Inedibles - Self - Absorption, October - November 1996
London, Steven Friedman Gallery, Lucas Samaras, October - November  2007, illustrated
New York, Hollis Taggart Gallery, Image in the Box: Cornell to Contemporary, November 2008 - January 2009, pp. 114 - 115, illustrated 
Berlin, Galerie Sprüth Magers, Source Codes, June - August 2009
New York, Senior & Shopmaker Gallery, Lucas Samaras/George Segal: Pastel Drawings 1950s - 1970s and Two Sculptures, April - June 2010

Exh. Cat., London, Stephen Friedman Gallery, Lucas Samaras, 2007, illustrated

The role that the "self" plays in the art of Lucas Samaras is hard to exaggerate.  Samaras has relentlessly subjected himself  to his own prying lens, often utilizing the resulting photographic image as a component in a larger composition. Box #101 is a perfect example of Samaras' use of both the box and the self-portrait.  This box immediately brings to mind early Byzantine and eastern Christian devotional reliquaries, often painted with an image of the saint on the exterior; when opened, they reveal a small devotional object, often a piece of the saint such as a finger or other bone.  Here, Samaras has reversed things, placing a delicately cut black and white image of his own face inside the box, amidst a mad tangle of brightly colored wooden rods. The sculptural element allows Samaras to engage with the viewer directly; in order to address and access the interior, one must spread apart the two leaves protecting the photograph like a child within a womb.