About
The first thought is that . . . Beecroft’s work . . . its use of real time, real space and real flesh, would have to be invented if it didn't already exist.
—Roberta Smith, New York Times, May 6, 1998
Yet for all the images in art that these girls may be related to, Beecroft does something no one else does—she does images live.
—Jan Avgikos, Parkett #56, 1999, page 107
Gagosian is pleased to announce the presentation of VB43, a performance by Vanessa Beecroft. The one evening event will be the first solo project by Beecroft in the UK.
The primary material in Beecroft’s work is the live figure, which remains ephemeral, separate, and unmediated by any device we normally accept as art form, such as painting or photography. The selected group of figures denotes a hyperreal type; their installation in the space creates an image that moves very slowly and gradually over time. In the case of VB43 influences come from an iconic British look and yet in Beecroft’s presentation a little accentuated. In VB43 there is a heightened relationship to the usual undercurrent reference to the use of the figure in classical painting and sculpture.
