Andres Serrano

Galleria Antoine Candau, Paris

Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1992

Pieta II belongs to one of the most controversial bodies of work in the history of Western art. Created between 1987 and 1990, Andre Serrano’s Immersions in part triggered the so-called Culture Wars, a debate over free expression and federal funding of the arts in the US. In the late 1980s, a group of right-wing Republicans claimed the series’ subject - various religious statuettes immersed in bodily fluids, such as blood, urine and semen – to be sacrilegious. Perceiving the fusion of sacred with profane as a vile assault on decency, Senator Alfonse D’Amato tore up Piss Christ, an early work from the series, on the chamber’s floor. In 1993, the acquisition of a copy of Pieta II by the University of Alabama’s art department was strongly protested by the students, causing the university to announce that while retaining the work in its collection, this wouldn’t go on display any time soon. Ironically, Serrano has claimed that his aim was not to provoke by denigrating Christianity, but to criticise the commercialisation of religious iconography.

In the present lot, a copy of Michelangelo’s masterpiece La Pietà floats in a mysterious otherworldly ether. The iconic sculpture is abstracted by a dynamic array of small bubbles that adds movement and energy to the already dramatic composition. The glowing colours, combined with the fizzing bubbles across the image, make the figures dazzle before the eyes as though the scene is encased in amber. One questions whether Serrano's figures really do float in urine and blood, or whether this work is the product of his trickery.

Undeniably playful, the legacy of Immersions paved the way for many contemporary artists, among them Chris Ofili, who created a scandalous uproar when he exhibited the Holy Virgin Mary with elephant dung in The Brooklyn Museum of Art's 1999 Sensation exhibition. By confronting institutional societal values of moral standards, Serrano stands for artistic conviction and freedom of expression, embodying a critical moment in art history that powerfully investigates the conflict between institutional orthodox conformity and objective freedom of expression.