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Lot Essay
Charles Ray's work has always maintained an ironic distance from the art of his own generation and that of the one immediately preceding it. He has operated within the conventions of formalism (professing support for artists such as David Smith and Anthony Caro) and within the vernaculars of fashion or the construction industry. He often takes everyday objects, and, by remaking or re-using them, casts doubt upon their original craftsmanship or authenticity. He has also used himself as the subject of works where scale and costuming affect our perception of him.
In a group of early pieces Ray took a simple piece of construction lumber and using his dealer (Hudson of Feature) and himself as active participants proposed sculptural solutions. In one Ray is propped against the gallery wall like a Richard Serra prop piece (fig. 1) and here the two figures become the supports and decorative elements of the bench that they construct with the same plank (fig. 2). In architectural terms it resembles nineteenth century public furniture such as that found in railway stations. In sculptural terms it relates to modernist experiments in Russia and to the benches and furniture of Constantin Brancusi.
It is characteristic of Ray that his presence introduces a descriptive, on this occasion baroque, element to the work. "When I was putting the sculpture together I was always there, lifting and moving and sliding things, and it became really easy for me to insert myself into the work as a material. But I had never just used myself." (Charles Ray interviewed by Paul Schimmel in Charles Ray, exh. cat., Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles 1998, p. 68)
fig. 1: Plank Piece, 1973, 1989
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Gift of the Lannan Foundation 97.89A.B
fig. 2: Hudson and Charles Ray perform Untitled.
In a group of early pieces Ray took a simple piece of construction lumber and using his dealer (Hudson of Feature) and himself as active participants proposed sculptural solutions. In one Ray is propped against the gallery wall like a Richard Serra prop piece (fig. 1) and here the two figures become the supports and decorative elements of the bench that they construct with the same plank (fig. 2). In architectural terms it resembles nineteenth century public furniture such as that found in railway stations. In sculptural terms it relates to modernist experiments in Russia and to the benches and furniture of Constantin Brancusi.
It is characteristic of Ray that his presence introduces a descriptive, on this occasion baroque, element to the work. "When I was putting the sculpture together I was always there, lifting and moving and sliding things, and it became really easy for me to insert myself into the work as a material. But I had never just used myself." (Charles Ray interviewed by Paul Schimmel in Charles Ray, exh. cat., Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles 1998, p. 68)
fig. 1: Plank Piece, 1973, 1989
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Gift of the Lannan Foundation 97.89A.B
fig. 2: Hudson and Charles Ray perform Untitled.