“when Louise Bourgeois uses marble, so rich in artistic history, to recall the ghostly little rabbits of her childhood... they all refer to a tradition and a history of art also dominated by a self-referential thread; all of them, each in their own way, “respond” to the artists who preceded them.
”
— Angela Vettese, from the catalogue Arte All’Arte III, 1998
For the third edition of Arte all’Arte, curated by Florian Matzner and Angela Vettese, San Gimignano was the site of works created on location by invitation from Louise Bourgeois.
"A block of pink marble has been cut to the dimensions of a sarcophagus or a small hedge. The front, both sides, and half of the back have been roughly hewn with small strokes, revealing the reflective quality of the grains that, upon solidifying, formed the stone. The rear portion, left unworked, is a dark salmon pink, while the carved parts become light pink. On the upper surface of the block, two marble areas have been polished to a high gloss and made perfectly horizontal, giving the appearance of small pools of water. From these emerge four pairs of rabbit ears, sculpted from the same marble using a different type of polishing that gives them a velvety appearance; in the thinnest areas, light penetrates to create effects of transparency and the vibrant coloration of flesh tones. Treated in this way, the material is slightly opaque and similar to human skin, and those ears have an animal shape, but also a human aspect."
Florian Matzner, Arte all’Arte III, 1998
Credits
Louise Bourgeois
Untitled (Ears), 1998
Pink marble
100 x182x 183 cm
San Gimignano, Arte all’Arte III
Ph. Attilio Maranzano
© Associazione Arte Continua, San Gimignano – Italy
© ASSOCIAZIONE ARTE CONTINUA
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