LOT Phillips de Pury & Company  /  PHOTOGRAPHS PART II  / 

198

YASUMASA MORIMURA (Japanese, b. 1951) SELF-PORTRAIT (ACTRESS) / AFTER CHARLOTTE RAMPLING, 'THE N...

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YASUMASA MORIMURA (Japanese, b. 1951) SELF-PORTRAIT (ACTRESS) / AFTER CHARLOTTE RAMPLING, 'THE N...
YASUMASA MORIMURA (Japanese, b. 1951) SELF-PORTRAIT (ACTRESS) / AFTER CHARLOTTE RAMPLING, 'THE NIGHT PORTER' signed and editioned in black ink on verso Cibachrome print 20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm) 1994 this print is number 25 from an edition of 25 from the portfolio PORTRAITS, Printed Matter, NEW YORK, 1995 PROVENANCE Private Collection, NEW YORK In this portrait, Morimura poses as Charlotte Rampling in her role as Lucia in THE NIGHT PORTER (1973). In the controversial film, Lucia plays the forced lover of Max (Dirk Bogarde), who poses as a doctor in a concentration camp in 1944. Lucia encounters Max working as a night porter in a Viennese hotel years later and after her initial violent reaction, they resume their affair. It is the flashback sequence of Lucia performing in the camp that Morimura is trying to conjure. This image also recalls the 1980s photograph of Charlotte Rampling by Helmut Newton. Often posing as female Western entertainment icons, it is Morimura's goal to challenge our concepts of race, gender, and sexuality through images such as this one. The cosmetic nature of this image is also reminiscent of the celebrated Edo tradition of Kabuki theater, in which men often play women and perform for an enthusiastic audience, a custom still very popular today. However, the irony of Morimura's work is the lack of toleration for men dressing as women in everyday scenarios, especially in his native Japan. Morimura mocks this social distaste of gender ambiguity by reminding us of this historically sanctioned custom.
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