Urs Fischer Meditates on the Ephemerality of ‘Beauty’ in Gagosian Exhibition
On view in Paris until May 25.
Swiss conceptual artist Urs Fischer has unveiled the latest chapter in his Problem Paintings (2010-) series. Housed at Gagosian’s Rue de Castiglione location, the latest works bypass depictions of food and hardware that Fischer superimposed on his subjects in the past, in place of floral motifs that denote the ephemerality of beauty.
Aptly titled Beauty, Fischer manipulated vintage photographs of famous film actors Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, and Gene Tierney across four supersized aluminum panels that he applied with a mixture of epoxy primer and gesso, as well as solvent-based and water based screen-printing paint. Emblematic of his earlier Problem Paintings, Fischer demonstrates a masterful eye for collage, obfuscating the women’s inner depths through compositional juxtapositions that force disparate associations, such as both the sexual connotation of flowers, along with the fleeting nature of youth and fame.
Fischer has long understood the power of advertisements, previously telling Hypeart that ads have now “defined language globally at this point — of what things are and what desires look like. In some ways, they [ads] are some of the strongest visual contributions in centuries. They create our inner image, a world order in our brains.”
Witness Beauty at Gagosian Paris until May 25.
Gagosian
9 rue de Castiglione
75001 Paris, France
