Beschreibung:

Juan Muñoz Untitled 1988 Wood, metal, plaster and clay. 156 x 35 x 20 cm (61 1/2 x 14 x 8 in). This work is registered with the Estate of Juan Munoz under archive number 0.443.
Provenance Galerie Ghislaine-Hussenot, Paris, Private Collection Exhibited Madrid, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Conde Duque, Encuentro con el arte actual, Pintores y escultores Españoles, 13 November, 2008 - 23 January, 2009 Catalogue Essay Although his career was curtailed by his premature death, Juan Muñoz nevertheless managed, in a short period of time, to return figurative sculpture to the forefront of contemporary artistic practice. Presenting the viewer with haunting depictions of the human form, his dramatic installations create an intriguing tension between the illusory and the real. The work presented here depicts the rough, shadowy outline of a bust encased in a hinged wooden cupboard. Depicting a frozen moment in time trapped in an enclosed architectural setting, the voyeuristic nature of this piece puts the viewer in an awkward position. Serving as an allegory for the failure of communication and the impasse of language, this ambiguous, surreal tableau leaves the audience to interpret its own story and meaning. “Muñoz’s figures are always either self-absorbed or involved in some enigmatic interchange that renders them obvious to all else. Never soliciting any engagement with the viewer, their impregnable self-preoccupation cachets their audience, thereby creating a relationship that is unsettling as that generated between the architecture that shelters them and the discombobulated spectator.” (L. Cooke, ed., Juan Muñoz Interpretations, New York, 1999, p. 12) Read More