Clive Barker British, b. 1940
Portrait of an Unknown Beauty, 1973
Chrome-plated bronze and bronze with black patina
39.4 cm high
Unique
During the early 1970s Pop artist Clive Barker worked on the theme of classical Greek sculpture. Having met Man Ray in 1969 at the Hannover Gallery, Barker started thinking about...
During the early 1970s Pop artist Clive Barker worked on the theme of classical Greek sculpture. Having met Man Ray in 1969 at the Hannover Gallery, Barker started thinking about the surrealist's handling of Venus de Milo, wrapped in rope.
'Portrait of an Unknown Beauty', with the head of Venus de Milo still recognisable by its characteristic tilt, is being mysteriously shrouded like the drowned or suffocated figures pictured in paintings by Magritte, whom Barker knew personally.
The sculpture is the ultimate in disguised reality which the Surrealists played on. By wrapping a head in cloth, the very sense of 'portrait' and identity is taken away. The juxtaposition of the imagined softness of human skin and the hard chrome plating questions the inherited notions of beauty.
Clive Barker's work is in museum collections worldwide including: Tate, London; British Museum, London; National Portrait Gallery, London; Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim; Museum für Modern Kunst, Frankfurt; National Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; Museu Coleção Berardo, Modern and Contemporary Art Museum, Lisbon; The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.
'Portrait of an Unknown Beauty', with the head of Venus de Milo still recognisable by its characteristic tilt, is being mysteriously shrouded like the drowned or suffocated figures pictured in paintings by Magritte, whom Barker knew personally.
The sculpture is the ultimate in disguised reality which the Surrealists played on. By wrapping a head in cloth, the very sense of 'portrait' and identity is taken away. The juxtaposition of the imagined softness of human skin and the hard chrome plating questions the inherited notions of beauty.
Clive Barker's work is in museum collections worldwide including: Tate, London; British Museum, London; National Portrait Gallery, London; Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim; Museum für Modern Kunst, Frankfurt; National Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; Museu Coleção Berardo, Modern and Contemporary Art Museum, Lisbon; The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia.
Provenance
Acquired directly from the Artist.Exhibitions
1987-88, Clive Barker: Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London and tour.2017, Clive Barker Pop Art Sculpture 1961 - 1982: An Individual Story, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton.
Literature
Clive Barker: Portraits, catalogue exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, London and tour, 1987-88, cat. no. 55, ill.; FERMON, An Jo and Marco LIVINGSTONE. Clive Barker. Sculpture. Catalogue raisonné 1958- 2000. Milan, 2002, cat. no. 142, p. 110, ill.Clive Barker Pop Art Sculpture 1961 - 1982: An Individual Story, exhibition catalogue with texts by An Jo FERMON and NUGENT Marguerite, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton, cat. no. cat. no. 35, ill. p. 69.
