About the artwork:
This painting is part of a series depicting the commedia dell'arte character Harlequin. These works serve as a continuation of the artist's series of Pulcinella-inspired drawings. The title refers to the Victorian-era genre of the Harlequinade, a precursor to the skits of modern-era clowns. In this composition, Harlequin is shown asleep and dreaming with his back turned to the viewer. Bismuth's drawings can also function as a space for dreaming; however, this work can be seen to provocatively imply that artworks only create spaces for daydreams and other flights of imagination when they are left alone. Harlequin's dream embody the artist's exploration of how representations of the world shape and inform our decisions and interactions. The artist's practice frequently combines visual art and literature to call both language and image into question.
About the artist:
Julien Bismuth works at the intersection between visual art and literature—calling language and image into question by intertwining the two. The artist’s work includes performance, collage, installation, video, photography, sculpture and drawing. Synthesizing from a wide range of critical and cultural investigations, Bismuth probes the ways in which our representations of the world shape and inform our decisions and interactions.
BIO:
Julien Bismuth was born in Paris, France in 1973.
Exhibitions of Bismuth’s work have taken place at: Nomas Foundation in Rome, Italy; Centre d'art La Criée in Rennes, France; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City; Galerie Emanuel Layr in Vienna, Austria; Galerie Parisa Kind in Frankfurt, Germany; LACE in Los Angeles, California; Les Abattoirs in Toulouse, France; Simone Subal in New York City; GAK in Bremen, Germany; The Box in Los Angeles, California; and Crac Alsace in Altkirch, France.
Group exhibitions that have shown Bismuth’s work have taken place at: FRAC in Marseille, France; the Oslo Biennalen in Oslo, Norway; the 14th Cuenca Biennial in Cuenca, Ecuador; Frac île-de-France in Paris, France; MAAT in Lisbon, Portugal; the National Art Gallery in Sofia, Bulgaria; the Centre d'Art Contemporain Parc St. Léger in Pougues-les-Eaux, France; Belvedere in Vienna, Austria; the Museo Marino Marini in Florence, Italy; Manifesta 10 in St. Petersburg, Russia; IAC in Villeurbanne, France; Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna, Austria; ICA Philadelphia in Pennsylvania; and Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, Germany.
Bismuth’s performances have been hosted at international institutions, including: the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France; the Villa Medici in Rome, Italy; the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France; MUSAC in León, France; the Fondation Ricard in Paris, France; and the Tate Modern in London, UK.
Bismuth’s work is in many private and public collections, including: the Autriche Serralvés Foundation in Porto, Portugal; the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, Austria; FNAC in Paris, France; Frac Ile-de-France in Paris, France; the Guggenheim Museum in New York City; and the Jumex Collection in Mexico City, Mexico.
Bismuth, along with the artist Jean-Pascal Flavien, is the co-founder of Devonian Press.
Bismuth has engaged in a series of collaborative projects in Brazil with Indigenous groups and the researchers that work alongside them.
Bismuth lives and works in New York City.
Specs:
This painting is part of a series depicting the commedia dell'arte character Harlequin, his back turned to the viewer as he dreams. The artist's work frequently combines visual art with literature to explore how representations of the world shape and inform our decisions and interactions.More
- Framed: 14.8 x 17.8 x 1.2 in.
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