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56

PIERRE ET GILLES (French, active since 1976) SAINTE MARIE MADELEINE (SOPHIE BLONDY) signed in in...

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PIERRE ET GILLES (French, active since 1976) SAINTE MARIE MADELEINE (SOPHIE BLONDY) signed in in...
PIERRE ET GILLES (French, active since 1976) SAINTE MARIE MADELEINE (SOPHIE BLONDY) signed in ink on verso unique hand-painted chromogenic color print mounted on aluminum in artists' handmade frame 42 15/16 x 36 7/16 in. (109 x 92.5 cm) 1988 makeup artist and hairstylist: Andréas Bernhardt PROVENANCE From an Important European Collection LITERATURE Bernard Marcadé and Dan Cameron, PIERRE ET GILLES: L'OEUVRE COMPLET 1976-1996, Cologne, 1997, p. 216 (illustrated) Museu de Belles Arts de València, PIERRE ET GILLES, València, 1998, p. 145 (illustrated) EXHIBITED GENEVA, Centre d'Art Contemporain, LA REVANCHE DE VÉRONIQUE, 1997 PARIS, Centre Pompidou, FÉMININ / MASCULIN: LE SEXE DE L'ARTE, October 27, 1995-February 12, 1996 TILLBURG, THE NETHERLANDS, Fondation pour l'Art Contemporain "de Pont" PARIS, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, PIERRE ET GILLES - 20 ANS D'AMOUR: 1976-1996, November 27, 1996-January 26, 1997 ZÜRICH, Museum für Gestaltung ARLES, Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Chapelle du Méjan, PIERRE ET GILLES, July 5-August 15, 1994 ANTWERP, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst SYDNEY, Museum of Contemporary Art, WIT'S END, February 16-May 23, 1993 PRAGUE, City of Prague Gallery SITTARD, THE NETHERLANDS, Het Domein LUXEMBOURG, Musée Nationale d'Histoire et d'Art Casino Luxembourg PONTEVERDA, SPAIN, Congrescos e Exposicions de Ponteverda PORTO, PORTUGAL, Centro Portuguès de Fotografia ARKEN, DENMARK, Museum for Moderne Kunst HAMBURG, Deichtorhallen, Kunstverein, DAS PORTRÄT IN DER ZEITGENOSSISCHEN PHOTOGRAPHIE, 1989 The life of Saint Mary Magdalene is the story of a great sinner, who repents at the feet of Jesus and experiences his forgiveness, as he anoints her with the message of peace. From that moment on, she followed Jesus throughout his ministry and grieved at the foot of the cross with only his mother and Saint John. In the photographic fantasy of Pierre et Gilles, Mary Magdalene is theatrically set at the base of the cross as the blood of Christ drips towards her upturned face. All signs of repentance have disappeared as the former adulteress poses erotically, with a fire-like background, cold blue eyes, and flaming red hair and fingernails, elements that seem more satanic than saintly. "Pierre et Gilles' Mary Magdalene (or the Pierre et Gilles reflected in Mary Magdalene) has done well in forsaking all vestige of guilt somewhere along the road to Calvary. Once rid of this excess baggage she exudes her natural aptitude for sensuality, joyous transgression and unbridled baroque theatricality with the distant yet unmistakable rumble of earth-shattering demolition. Repentance is surely the first victim along the road of Pierre et Gilles' painstaking process of familiarising themselves with the sacred that has led them to this peculiar and particular book of saints" (Mendicutti, "Religious Imagery in the Work of Pierre et Gilles," PIERRE ET GILLES, València, 1998, p. 269). Religious imagery seems a perfect subject for Pierre et Gilles, the collaborative couple, who were both raised Catholic. They work in a Warholian vein, transforming celebrities like Sophie Blondy into reincarnations of saints in their quest to create contemporary objects of devotion. The dramatic stories behind the lives of the saints they choose to depict are ideal vehicles for their baroque artistry, as they painstakingly create sets, theatrical lighting, and dramatic makeup and poses to depict their subjects.
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