Newest Urs Fischer Exhibition To Include Life-Size Leonardo DiCaprio Candle
The well-known contemporary artist is wowing us with wax once again.
youtube They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder — and the same can be said about art. What makes art good? Is it a stroke of a brush, the detail used, or a combination of elements? It’s one of those questions that even art buffs contemplate from time to time.
And while there are the greats like van Gogh, da Vinci, Picasso, and even Banksy, there are also modern artists that use popular culture. One such artist from Sweden does just that. Who is Urs Fischer?
“Urs Fischer is a Swiss Conceptual artist best known for his large-scale sculptures and installations. Exploring impermanent materials and popular culture, Fischer’s work evokes genres historically associated with painting, including landscapes, nudes, and still lifes.
One of Fischer’s primary interests is the spontaneous process of creating and destroying materials. His installation ‘What if the phone rings’ (2003) involved lighting life-size candles shaped as nude women, to create ever-changing shapes as they burned down to a puddle of wax.”
Fischer’s works and exhibitions have been featured at the Venice Biennale, Centre Georges Pompidou, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Rubell Family Collection, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. But it’s impossible to lump Fischer into one category and classification, particularly because he works with all sorts of materials. However, he is considered a contemporary artist.
So contemporary, in fact, that he’s announced his new show at Gagosian, a gallery in Paris, will feature Leonardo DiCaprio ... in the form of a candle. Said ArtNews, the show will be titled “Leo” and debuts on October 14th.
It’s not the first time he’s used wax sculptures in his exhibitions; he’s made life-size candles of art collector Dasha Zhukova, artist Julian Schnabel, and art collector Peter Brant. Perhaps it’s a nod to DiCaprio’s environmental work as Fischer has, in the past, auctioned off his work for the actor’s foundation.
Back in January, Fischer sat down for an interview with ARTNews, discussing his artwork and upcoming shows.
When asked about the scale of his sculptures, he said, “I also do very little sculptures. It just depends, because if you put a little sculpture outside it doesn’t work. The size of an artwork is in your memory, ultimately. A tiny thing, like a furry cup [a reference to Méret Oppenheim’s 1936 Le Déjeuner en fourrure] can be monumental in its impact. A bigger Richard Serra might feel smaller than a furry cup. Ultimately it’s irrelevant what size artworks have, it’s what size they take on in your memory.”
He also answered questions about his earlier work compared to his more recent ones. Asked about how he feels, he responded, “The art I saw when I was like, 20, and then I see it now, and some of it ages really great and some of it disappears and comes back ... some things have something else to say through time, in a way. And you don’t know what that is, and that’s what art is awesome for.”
What a great thought.
Samantha Maffucci is an editor for YourTango who focuses on writing trending news and entertainment pieces. In her free time, you can find her obsessing about cats, wine, and all things Vanderpump Rules.