Untitled (Marilyn), 2015

Printed images on aluminum, fabric

As part of a work created specially for Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro, Gonzalez-Foerster appears as Marilyn Monroe in the famous skinny dip scene from her unfinished last movie, Something’s Got to Give (1962), with this connecting us back to the early modern days of the museum and the mid-sixties when Gonzalez-Foerster was born.

Untitled, 1986/2015 (back right)
Column and surface with carpet

Placed in front of the rectangular shape, the column covered in the same material creates the optical effect of partially disappearing or fusing. Perhaps in reference to the traditional distinctions between sculpture and painting (and its reprise in modernism of three-dimensionality vs. flatness), the dynamic contrasts the sculptural presence of the columnar shape with the two-dimensionality of the wall.

Untitled, 1987/2015 (back left)
Tennis balls and glass fire protection

In a post-Duchampian act, this was less intended to elevate the everyday but rather to question the hierarchical distinction between high and low. The slightly curved transparent screen on which sides bright tennis balls are spread evoke the artist’s ongoing concern with sites of leisure and play.

Photo © Pat Kilgore