Tagada, Tagada, Tagada, here comes Ray, Charles Ray!
From his performances in the 1970s to his latest sculptures, the artist has produced 123 works.
About a third are currently presented in Paris until June and are divided into two places:
the Bourse de commerce Pinault Collection and the Centre Beaubourg.
Each sheds particular light on the work of this American, born in Chicago in 1953.
The set of sculptures (17), presented at La Bourse de Commerce, is mainly devoted to the artist's last 15 years of production, while the Centre Beaubourg embraces a vision of work spanning almost 45 years.
After using performance and then photography, he expresses itself today essentially through sculpture.
This technique allows him to play with space, the scale of representation, masses and materials as different as steel, marble, concrete, aluminum, fiberglass or papier-mâché.
With a deep knowledge of art history, he revisits the great classical, artistic and philosophical themes. He anchors them in our contemporary world, summons ancient Greece in aluminum and stainless steel, gods, Christ and goddesses in papier maché, homeless in marble or concrete.
Jeff, 2021, portrait of a homeless drug addict carved in barely veined white marble usually reserved for gods and goddesses.
The New Beetle , 2006, painted stainless steel, 53x88x72 cm
Return to One , 2020, handmade paper, 151x160x141 cm - self-portrait in a waiting situation
Unbaled Truck , 2021, crushed then unfolded truck, 193x183x528 cm
Boy with Frog , 2009, painted stainless steel, 244x75x105 cm - re-interpretation of Sauroctone's Apollo, a naked Olympian god about to kill a lizard, and Donatello's David brandishing Goliath's head. The child here in front of the frog, takes the measure of otherness and its omnipotence.
Sleeping Woman (2012), stainless steel, 2600 kg block, portrait of a homeless woman lying on a bench.
School Play , 2014, stainless steel statue representing a half Star Wars child with his plastic sword for a show at the end of the school year.
Oh! Charley, Charley, Charley... 1992, group of eight figures, nudes, featuring the artist at different ages and depicting a seemingly orgiastic gay scene.
Family Romance, 1993, group of 4 characters, the father, the mother, the boy and the girl, whose identical sizes and nudity question all the more as they seem to escape of a monster and grotesque tree posed in the background Hinoki, 2007, cypress wood.
Fall'91 , 1992, painted fiberglass, clothing, jewelry, glass and metal, 244x66x91 - oversized mannequin, (delighting visitors with selfies).
Young Man, 2021, naked man, scale 1, standing, arms along the body, leaning on one leg, the other slightly bent, posture of the Kouros of ancient Greece but in stainless steel, chrome like a brand new truck .
Portrait of the artist's Mother , 2021, handmade paper, from the back. Decorated with brightly colored flowers (a nod to brands and products like Murakami or flower power?)
Portrait of the artist's Mother , 2021, this Venus XXL format, sanctifies a woman who does not need anyone to send herself to 7th heaven and at the same time invites the visitor to a "follow me young man".
Concrete Dwarf (2021), concrete, prone dwarf with indefinite expression, is he asleep or is he dead? Evocation of a sleeping Eros, in gray monochrome.
Study after Algardi, 2021, 350x262x75cm. Giant Christ shaped in paper of immaculate whiteness. Deprived of his cross, he seems to float in space, a feeling reinforced by the lightness and expression movement of the drape.
Burger, 2021, painted fiberglass, 224x103x54 kg oversized character paying great attention to the object of his meal.
Unbaled Truck , 2021, truck crushed then unfolded, 193x183x528 cm in the middle of the large hall of the Bourse de Commerce.
