Yan Pei-Ming at the Louvre
Monday, February 16th, 2009
Les Funérailles de Monna Misa, Courtesy Reuters
Yan Pei-Ming is the latest in a series of contemporary artists to be invited to the Louvre to offer their interpretations and reactions to the Old Masters. Les Funérailles de Monna Lisa, or The Mona Lisa’s Funeral, is an installation of five impressively sized oil paintings, hung between the large scale French paintings and the room which houses Leonardo da Vinci’s original masterpiece (Denon wing, first floor). The middle canvas is an interpretation of the Mona Lisa, flanked on either side by abstract compositions populated by skulls. At right angles, on the side walls are two paintings depicting sleeping – or dead? - figures. The large scale and proximity of these portraits make the installation dramatic and personal. The painters touch is evident in the textured bichrome of white and grey. In fact, it is the materiality of the paintings, along with the fact that they are unframed, that make them stand out amongst the smooth-surfaced 19th century academic French painting. The materiality also contrasts to The Mona Lisa: kept at a distance from the crowd and screened by layers of flash-proof glass its material qualities are all but absent. This obsession with the Mona Lisa could be why Pei-Ming thinks it’s time this painting should be given a proper burial and laid to rest.
Les Funérailles de Monna Lisa is on at the Louvre until 18/05/09
[...] collections (others have been invited for temporary installation projects, including Jan Fabre, Yan-Pei Ming and currently Joseph [...]