Ugo Rondinone yellow blue nun, 2020
Cast bronze, painted
Unique
Unique
300 x 130,9 x 106,7 cm (118 1/8 x 51 1/2 x 42 1/8 in)
yellow blue nun is a unique sculpture that belongs to Ugo Rondinone's "nuns and monks" body of work. Conceived on the occasion of the artist's 2020 solo exhibition at Esther Schipper in Berlin, the 3-meter tall sculpture is made of two parts – the body and the head – that form the basic shape of a human body wrapped in a cloak. Made in painted bronze, the sculptures were conceived from limestone models, scans of which were “three-dimensionalized” within a digital program. Each sculpture weighs 450 kg approx.
The sculptures of nuns and monks present themselves in their original beauty. An "archaic" beauty that brings to mind two other groups of works by the artist: the raw stone figures of Human Nature in Rockefeller Plaza, 2013, and the neon-colored stone mountains Seven Magic Mountains in the desert of Nevada, 2016. These groups are the study and enjoyment of naturally formed stones as objects of beauty and contemplation, and in turn generate personal, meditative states of looking in which the boundaries between the outside world and internally visualized spaces break down. In doing so, Rondinone makes sculptures of what it means and feels like to see, whether this is understood to be a physical or metaphysical phenomenon.
In the artist's words:
"Nuns and monks occupy the literal and figurative centers of human life, but they also appear in a wide range of social and narrative contexts. I wanted to reveal the multivalent potential of nuns and monks as vessel and beacon, human body and mystical source. In so doing, the work reveals a broad array of interests, notable for both historical depth and up-to-the-minute urgency. Through human history religious imagery has had immense transformational power; a familiar symbol can transform another symbol, like a stone, into something richly metaphorical." — Ugo Rondinone
The series continues to address this dual reflection between the inner self and the natural world. Just as the external world one sees is inseparable from the internal structures of oneself, "nuns and monks" allows such layers of signification to come in and out of focus, prompting the viewer to revel in the pure sensory experience of color, form and mass while simultaneously engender in an altogether contemporary version of the sublime.
The creation of these works was nourished by Rondinone’s assiduous frequentation of the medieval sculpture department at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and in addition by a powerful confrontation with Giacomo Manzù's cardinals (born Giacomo Manzoni, 1908-1991), whose own particular modernity, permeated by a classicism that defies time and categorization, inevitably corresponded to Rondinone's interest.
The sculptures of nuns and monks present themselves in their original beauty. An "archaic" beauty that brings to mind two other groups of works by the artist: the raw stone figures of Human Nature in Rockefeller Plaza, 2013, and the neon-colored stone mountains Seven Magic Mountains in the desert of Nevada, 2016. These groups are the study and enjoyment of naturally formed stones as objects of beauty and contemplation, and in turn generate personal, meditative states of looking in which the boundaries between the outside world and internally visualized spaces break down. In doing so, Rondinone makes sculptures of what it means and feels like to see, whether this is understood to be a physical or metaphysical phenomenon.
In the artist's words:
"Nuns and monks occupy the literal and figurative centers of human life, but they also appear in a wide range of social and narrative contexts. I wanted to reveal the multivalent potential of nuns and monks as vessel and beacon, human body and mystical source. In so doing, the work reveals a broad array of interests, notable for both historical depth and up-to-the-minute urgency. Through human history religious imagery has had immense transformational power; a familiar symbol can transform another symbol, like a stone, into something richly metaphorical." — Ugo Rondinone
The series continues to address this dual reflection between the inner self and the natural world. Just as the external world one sees is inseparable from the internal structures of oneself, "nuns and monks" allows such layers of signification to come in and out of focus, prompting the viewer to revel in the pure sensory experience of color, form and mass while simultaneously engender in an altogether contemporary version of the sublime.
The creation of these works was nourished by Rondinone’s assiduous frequentation of the medieval sculpture department at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and in addition by a powerful confrontation with Giacomo Manzù's cardinals (born Giacomo Manzoni, 1908-1991), whose own particular modernity, permeated by a classicism that defies time and categorization, inevitably corresponded to Rondinone's interest.