Ida Applebroog’ s ‘MONALISA” 2009 Installation View All images via Hauser and Wirth unless otherwise noted
Currently showing at Hauser and Wirth Gallery, 32 East 69 St., New York, NY is “MONALISA”, an exhibition of works by an American artist Ida Applebroog. The present exhibition is a debut of the entirely new body of work, with a centerpiece of a rudimentary wooden structure that the artist’s calls “MONALISA’s House”. The structure’s walls are covered by one hundred drawings of the artist’s genitals that she produced in the seclusion of her bathroom, while living in California in 1969. The artist speaks about her work: “It was a certain period of my life and before I got into the tub I’d sit with a full-length mirror on the floor. It was before my own radicalization.”
Ida Applebroog’ s ‘MONALISA” 2009 Installation View
More images and text after the jump..
Ida Applebroog’ s ‘MONALISA” 2009 Installation View
Group 13, Ida Applebroog, 1969
Upon returning to New York, Applebroog stored the drawings in the basement of her Manhattan residence, where they remained until 2009, when a studio assistant discovered them. The artist then decided to incorporate them into her new project titled MONALISA. Applebroog scanned the original images into hand-made Gampi paper, enlarged and digitally manipulated and enhanced with additions of grey, yellow and pink. These drawings cover the bare walls of Monalisa House that contains two large-format paintings (“MONALISA” and “Brian”).
“Brian“, 2009 Ida Applebroog
“MONALISA”, 2009 Ida Applebroog
Fragment of MONALISA exhibited next to the original 1969 version of the artist’s highly detailed vulva drawings
An extensive catalog featuring an illustrated essay by art historian Julia Bryan-Wilson and a photographic study of the MONALISA House by Abby Robinson. The exhibition is on view until march 6, 2010.
Installation View
Group 13, Ida Applebroog, 1969
Born in Bronx, New York, Ida Applebroog attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and received a doctorate from Parsons School of Design. A creator of instantly recognizable comic “everyman” and “everywoman” figures, often incorporating exaggerated zoo-morph elements, Applebroog makes gender and sexual identity one of central subject-matters of her oeuvre. The artist’s works are prominently featured in the collection of Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum.
Applebroog’s work is included in the collections of many venerated artistic institutions in the United States, among them The Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Corcoran Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Relevant Links:
Ida Applebroog’s web-page [Ida Applebroog]
Exhibition’s web-page at Hauser and Wirth [ Hauser and Wirth]
Artist’s Page at Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum
Artist’s Interview for PBS1 [Power, Feminism & Art]
Europe on the Upper East Side [NY Times]
Ida Applebroog and the State of Feminist Art [L Magazine]
Ida Applebroog [BOMB Magazine]
