Juan Muñoz

Galeria Marga Paz, Madrid
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 1989 

New York, Zwirner & Wirth, Juan Muñoz - Selected Works, 2004, n.p., illustrated

This work is in very good condition. All of the elements are well intact. There is light oxidization throughout and light wear to the wooded base. All surface inconsistencies appear inherent to the medium and the artist's working method.
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Untitled is an early and highly evocative example of Juan Muñoz's explorations into the human psyche through the medium of sculpture. The artist's investigations into devising illusions and inconclusive stories with which to engage the spectator in psychological gamesmanship is unprecedented in contemporary sculpture and has fascinated him throughout his oeuvre. At the same time, there existed a continued importance for Muñoz that his sculpture would be unaffected by their audience. Muñoz described his solitary figures as "a monologue in a room;" we see this clearly in Untitled, where a theatrical scene unfolds that acts alone and is socially marginalized. 

Characteristically ambiguous, the viewer here is presented with the profile of an anonymous figure handling a pulley of sorts which when followed, we find is connected to the figure, creating a continuous mechanical link of potential yet unachievable movement. When one takes a closer look, we are confronted with a confused state of logistics by the inoperable machinery. It implies the necessity of a master to move and animate the figure, resonate of his other early wooden acrobats, ballerinas and mannequins.  As with his Conversation Pieces which he would embark upon soon after Untitled, the desire of the characters to interact or move is supressed, creating a tension and angst that resonates with the viewer.

In the present example, Muñoz's solitary 'character' remains paradoxically characterless; generically proletarian and devoid of any individual features. It is only when the viewer turns to the side of the sculpture do we see that the figure is two-dimensional, impenetrable both physically and psychologically. Muñoz is therefore successful at creating a form that is simultaneously familiar, yet foreign at the same time, resulting in a feeling of cognitive dissonance and self-reflection. We are, however, naturally drawn to attempting to find some familiarity or empathy with this figure, however unachievable this may prove to be.  We can imagine the figure to be glancing upwards, perhaps in morbid contemplation of his physical position, perhaps of his position within society. An infinite number of questions can be asked; is the figure responsible for his fate or was he placed in this awkward and inescapable conundrum by another? Due to human nature, the viewer is set up to search for the stories we cannot do without and the more inconclusive the story, the more it will resonate and stay with us.

The enigmatic Untitled is an exceptionally historic work within Muñoz's oeuvre. It marks the beginning of the artist's explorations into the narrative void and spatial awareness. As Lynne Cooke observes in 1999 at his exhibition at Dia Centre for the Arts, "as elsewhere in Muñoz's art [...] the audience was prevented from actively participating in the mise en scène, and was forced to acknowledge an insuperable separation from this charged domain of the uncanny, and to confront the estrangement, anxiety divorce, and isolation that permeate it." (Exhibition Catalogue, New York, Dia Centre for the Arts, Juan Muñoz: Interpolations, 1999, p. 15)