Untitled
2019
Default
32 x 31.50 in
Year
2019
Medium
Paintings
Reference
0af2f329
Unique artwork on paper. Hand-finished in oil paint by the artist on pigment print with silkscreen glaze.
The Iris paintings reflect the fact that, in the age of the internet, the visual sense dominates our perception of the world. The eye is traditionally seen as a mirror of the soul but it is also a kind of microscopic map of an individual's identity, since each person's is unique. In these works, Quinn depicts an iris at close range, in a photorealist, non- expressive way on a round canvas. The eye is enlarged so that it appears virtually abstract and the pupil appears like a aperture or hole in the centre of a fine, detailed network of colourful lines. Quinn was interested in the idea of making ‘stealth’ portraits of people, at once universal and unique, and not just an image of the sitter, but an actual visual index of their identity. The artist observes: "The etymology of 'iris' is derived from the Greek word for 'rainbow'. And in the colours, even in quite subtle, dark colours, there is a kind of celebration of individuality."
Furthermore, "in the middle you have that black hole of the pupil [and] all of the mystery and uncertainty of life. It’s a very profound expression of the ambiguity which is at the heart of our existence. "Also of interest about the eye is its position as the only internal organ you can see from the outside, as Quinn remarks: "The iris is in a way our doorway to the world, it is the window we see out of and the doorway for light to enter and interact with our nervous system. They are like a leakage of the vivid interior world of the body to the monochrome world of the skin." In the works Map of Where You Can't See the Stars and Eye of History, Quinn has added a world map over the image of the eye. These works comment on the paranoid world we live in, and the notion of 24 hour news where the whole world is connected through ever-present media and syncopate this with notions of our eroding and changing geographical world. They present images of the world map from various perspectives – such as the Arctic – displaying how the boundaries of experience and geographical territory as we know them are rapidly changing.
1964 London, United Kingdom
Contemporary British artist Marc Quinn is a notable member of the Young British Artists, an influential group of artists who came to prominence in the art world during the 1990s, including Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin. Quinn’s sculptures and installations examine identity, media and perception through corporeal experimentation with bodies, including his own. Many of his works are often challenging and shocking, either due to scale, violence, or avant-garde innovation. Quinn studied the history of art at Robinson College and worked as an assistant to Welsh sculptor Barry Flanagan in the 1980s. He received recognition early in his career, and was the first artist to be represented by art dealer Jay Jopling, founder of White Cube. Among Quinn’s best known works is his 2004 commission for the first edition of the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, a monumental marble sculpture showcasing the pregnant body of Alison Lapper. Quinn is one of the most commercially successful artists in the United Kingdom, and has consistently donated much of his fortune from art sales to charities helping refugees, the homeless, cancer and environmental protection, and accepts many commissions or auction projects in the name of charity. He has held solo exhibitions at prestigious institutions in more than twenty countries including the Fondazione Prada, Milan; the Tate Modern, London; Royal Academy, London; the National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C.; and the Museum of Modern Art, Dublin.
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Address
London, 436 King's Rd, Chelsea
Tanya Baxter contemporary, based in London and Hong Kong, is a leading art advisory and gallery with nearly twenty-five years’ experience working in the Post-Modern, Modern British and Contemporary art market. The London Gallery, established in 1998, is situated in Chelsea. The Art Advisory office in Hong Kong is based in the up and coming Wong Chuk Hang D...
