Art & Representation – Vik Muniz
Vik Muniz, born 1961 in Brazil, now residing and working in New York, originally trained as a sculptor, Muniz uses unconventional materials such as chocolate syrup, thread, peanut butter etc to create representational works such as portraits and recreations of other artists works. Vik Muniz’ works seem to be a juxtaposition in the realm of representation, as Eleanor Heartly (Art& today) discusses “the fiction of realism”, representational art has steered from being a mimicry of the visual world into what would rather be described as artists representing what ‘reality’ really is.
Muniz’ work has often been described as visual trickery, and some of his earlier works such as “Double Mona Lisa, After Warhol (peanut butter & jelly)” 1999, seem to be clever at first but the meaning is easily distinguishable and they leave room for no deeper exploration.
“Shovel” (sossego, copper mine 2006) seems to show a more developed sense of representation that goes beyond the tricks and mimicry of Muniz’ earlier works, as too do his latest works, a series called “Verso” in which Muniz and a team of artists, carpenters and forges recreated the backs of classic masterpieces such as Grant Wood’s American Gothic, and Matisse’ Red Studio right down to the smallest faded pencil mark. This exhibition of works takes a different spin on representation as all we see is a series of the backs of canvases, when on closer inspection we see the marks that show these to be works of master artists. They are of cause all fakes, but they impress on our minds the idea of ‘what if?’ what is the reality? If what we see is a true representation of the backs of these masterpieces can we be sure that they are the masterpieces themselves? And equally how can we know they are not? I believe this idea is summed up by Eleanor Heartly’s (Art & Today) reference to ‘science and technology continue.. [ly] to operate on the assumption that there is a reality out there that exists independently of human subjectivity, art increasingly takes issue with that idea. In the postmodern era, “reality” has become as mutable as our minds.’
Images (from top to bottom)
Verso (American gothic) 2008
Verso (The moment of impact) 2008
Verso (Starry night) 2008
Shovel (sossego, copper mine) 2006
Double Mona Lisa after Warhol (peanut butter and jelly) 1999
www.mocp.org/collections/permanent/muniz_vik.php
www.renabranstengallery.com/muniz.html
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