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Lot Essay
In 1988 Robert Gober and Christopher Wool held a a collaborative exhibition entitled A Project: Robert Gober/Christopher Wool at 303 Gallery. Only in Untitled, a photograph of a dress that was sewn by Gober and emblazoned with a design by Wool, were the efforts of both men present in one artwork. The other works in this seminal exhibition including Gober's Three Urinals and Wool's Apocalypse Now were each made by the artists individually, finding common ground in themes but not in their execution.
The direct collaboration between Gober and Wool in Untitled yields surprising results. Each artist seems to have assumed nuances of the other's style to create this haunting work. The impact of their exchange becomes most apparent when one realizes the genesis of this piece. During 1982-1983, Gober focused much of his energy into a project called Slides of a Changing Painting. He painted a single board over and over, developing one theme or motif only to have it morph into another. The only record of the boards various incarnations is the slide collection shot to document each painting before it was transformed. Slides of a Changing Painting is a veritable iconographic key for Gober's later works. Not surprisingly within this series is the prototype for Untitled. In 1982-1983 Gober was painting a white dress hanging from a tree that is strikingly similar to the image of Untitled. It is not surprising that Gober would revisit this motif five years after its first introduction as repetition is fundamental to his working method, but it is fascinating to see the final culmination of this motif in Untitled executed as a collaboration.
As Slides of a Changing Painting shows the completely transformative, though logical, evolution of Gober's motifs by laying one idea on top of another, Wool adds layers that completely alter Gober's basic idea. The photograph taken by Gober captures the patterns of the barren forest emulating Wool's patterns. The dress hanging from a tree, its surrogate model, is covered with Wool's arabesques forming a neat self-referencing synthesis. The tree acts as the model mimicking a woman with hands raised toward the sky, but of course the actual person is suspiciously absent. Immediately recognizable is Gober's fixation with the denigration and repression of the body that is exemplified through the choice of "mannequin". Wool's pattern heightens this dissipation. Not only the body but the dress begins to evaporate. This too is a logical conclusion, but one that Gober had not yet explored.
This collaboration acutely augments themes and inflicts subtle change to the visual vocabulary of Gober's and Wool's individually strong voices creating a unique work for both artists.
The direct collaboration between Gober and Wool in Untitled yields surprising results. Each artist seems to have assumed nuances of the other's style to create this haunting work. The impact of their exchange becomes most apparent when one realizes the genesis of this piece. During 1982-1983, Gober focused much of his energy into a project called Slides of a Changing Painting. He painted a single board over and over, developing one theme or motif only to have it morph into another. The only record of the boards various incarnations is the slide collection shot to document each painting before it was transformed. Slides of a Changing Painting is a veritable iconographic key for Gober's later works. Not surprisingly within this series is the prototype for Untitled. In 1982-1983 Gober was painting a white dress hanging from a tree that is strikingly similar to the image of Untitled. It is not surprising that Gober would revisit this motif five years after its first introduction as repetition is fundamental to his working method, but it is fascinating to see the final culmination of this motif in Untitled executed as a collaboration.
As Slides of a Changing Painting shows the completely transformative, though logical, evolution of Gober's motifs by laying one idea on top of another, Wool adds layers that completely alter Gober's basic idea. The photograph taken by Gober captures the patterns of the barren forest emulating Wool's patterns. The dress hanging from a tree, its surrogate model, is covered with Wool's arabesques forming a neat self-referencing synthesis. The tree acts as the model mimicking a woman with hands raised toward the sky, but of course the actual person is suspiciously absent. Immediately recognizable is Gober's fixation with the denigration and repression of the body that is exemplified through the choice of "mannequin". Wool's pattern heightens this dissipation. Not only the body but the dress begins to evaporate. This too is a logical conclusion, but one that Gober had not yet explored.
This collaboration acutely augments themes and inflicts subtle change to the visual vocabulary of Gober's and Wool's individually strong voices creating a unique work for both artists.