- 173
Ugo Rondinone
Description
- Ugo Rondinone
- nude (xxx)
- wax and drained earth pigments
- 79 by 132 by 60.5 cm. 31 1/8 by 52 by 23 7/8 in.
- Executed in 2010, this work is number 3 from an edition of 3, plus 2 artist's proofs.
Provenance
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Exhibited
Leuven, M - Museum Leuven, thank you silence, June - October 2013, pp. 40-41, illustrated in colour; and Exhibition Pamphlet, p. 8, illustrated in colour (another example exhibited)
Condition
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Catalogue Note
The contemplative pose of the sculpture evokes a fragile, inward-looking perspective that resonates with the work’s title, nude (xxx). Not only a signifier for nakedness, the title also hints towards the exposed nature of contemplation as a state of highest vulnerability, emphasised by the delicate material used for the cast. The natural essence of the material emphasises the duality of life and death of the very life-like yet unreal apparitions with closed eyes and fragmented limbs. On the occasion of Rondinone’s important exhibition thank you silence at M - Museum Leuven, where the nude sculptures were for the first time exhibited in their entirety, curator Eva Wittocx reflected on this important body of work: “Their closed eyelids indicate a state of peace, serenity and modesty. They appear to be wrapped in a hermetic contemplation on life. The nudes are visibly fragmented and the various limbs are held together on a metal skeleton as a mannequin’s might be. Their fragmentation is strengthened by the varied earth tints from which the limbs have been made… The bodies display a fragile realism: little hairs, pores and other details are quite visible. Their vulnerability is strengthened by the wax, normally a transitory transition material used as liquid mould in the production process from clay to bronze. At the same time the earth tones give the naked bodies a sort of camouflage or protection” (Eva Wittocx cited in: Exhibition pamphlet, Leuven, M - Museum Leuven, thank you silence, 2013, online).
Similar to Rondinone’s paintings, nude (xxx) defies any definitive interpretation and is suffused with the artist’s idiosyncratic sense of openness and dichotomy. As part of a small body of work that stands at the core of Rondinone’s sculptural practice, the present work is an aesthetic and conceptual exploration of the fugitiveness of youth, beauty, and materiality.