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PIERRE ET GILLES (French, active since 1976) LE DANSEUR EXOTIQUE (ROY) signed, titled and dated on v

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:30,000.00 - 40,000.00 USD
PIERRE ET GILLES (French, active since 1976) LE DANSEUR EXOTIQUE (ROY) signed, titled and dated on v
PIERRE ET GILLES (French, active since 1976) LE DANSEUR EXOTIQUE (ROY) signed, titled and dated on verso unique handpainted chromogenic color print mounted on aluminum in artists' handmade frame 471/8 x 2913/16 in. (119.7 x 75.7 cm) in frame 1992 ESTIMATE: $30,000-40,000 PROVENANCE Galerie Samia Saouma, PARIS Private Collection, BELGIUM Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont, PARIS Private Collection, germany EXHIBITED PARIS, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, PIERRE ET GILLES, VINGT ANS 1976-1996, November 26, 1996-January 26, 1997 (illustrated in catalogue) LITERATURE PIERRE ET GILLES, Tokyo, 1994, p. 58 (illustrated and labeled "le stripteaseur") Bernard Marcadé and Dan Cameron, PIERRE ET GILLES: L'OEUVRE COMPLET 1976-1996, Cologne, 1997, p. 250 (illustrated) Pierre et Gilles, the collaborative couple, create their images through labor intensive means. Sets are built onto a stage in their studio, the poses planned, the lighting perfected, and then the models are dressed and makeup applied. Pierre shoots the photograph then Gilles uses his genius with the paintbrush to highly sexualize and idealize the ironic images that "[blur] the lines between kitsch, camp, and...glamour" (Cameron, PIERRE ET GILLES, New York, 2001, p. 16). A frame, unique to each piece, is then designed and handcrafted by the team. In this important work, the only information we are given about the model is his name, Roy. The personality created is that of a disco diva, a homo-eroticized stripper, who has taken center stage, body glistening with the white paint Gilles has applied to his photographed body. The gaudiness of the imagery and frame, ironically combined with painstaking craft, demonstrates Pierre et Gilles' typical play with the boundaries between 'high' versus 'low' art, photography versus painting, and mass versus gay culture.