Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Othoneil at Beaubourg

Bill and I weren't familiar with the work of Jean-Michel Othoniel until we saw this retrospective. This detail from The Popular Sphinx Moth is an early work from 1988. At the other end of the stocking is the original packaging of the stocking. That's a real Sphinx moth attached. A very successful modern surrealist work.
Post-tits from 1995 made us smile and admire it's modest achievement.
More lovely watercolour nipples on post-it notes than we could count.
In 1997 Othoniel's work becomes more substantial. Untitled, 1997, is Murano glass.
The Lagrimas (tears) of 2003 are a stunning achievement. The work consists of dozens of glass floats in sealed glass containers -- even the table is part of the work.
Othoniel's works became more and more monumental in scale once he started working in glass. That's The Great Double Lacan's Knot on the left, from 2011 -- mirror glass and metal.
Here's a close up of one the mirror glass "beads".

No comments:

Post a Comment