"Calle regularly inserts the personal circumstances of her own life into her artistic activities, often placing herself in challenging emotional and psychological situations, and enlisting the participation of others," said Pieranna Cavalchini, Tom and Lisa Blumenthal Curator of Contemporary Art at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. "She has created works dealing with the loss of sight, loss through death, missing people, missing identities or experiences that must be re-created from recollections. Absence and memory are crucial threads that run through all her projects. This exhibition is a poignant reminder of just how much power art and, a great artist like Sophie Calle, can yield in bringing life, energy and beauty to what is in essence a never ending story of loss."
The Concert, Johannes Vermeer, oil on canvas, 72.5 cm × 64.7 cm (28.5 in × 25.5 in). Whereabouts unknown since the unsolved art theft at the Gardner
In 2012 the Gardner invited Calle to revisit her Last Seen… project, which had never been viewed in Boston. Since Calle's 1991 work in the Museum, the empty frames that once held the absent works had been reinstalled in the galleries, literally framing the emptiness. "While I was discussing the project of showing Last Seen at the Gardner with the curator, I learned that since my last visit they had restored the frames of the missing paintings (they had been left behind) and put them back on the wall," said Sophie Calle.
"So I decided to propose a new version of the project, based on the fact that the paintings’ absence was now so visible, delimited by an empty frame. My work is often about absence: of a lover, a parent, a friend, or of something else that is missing. What was interesting here is how the absence was emphasized and made visible in such a striking way."
In creating her new project, What Do You See?, Calle once again questioned people in the Museum’s Dutch Room, but this time she did not mention the missing paintings to the staff and visitors with whom she spoke. She asked each viewer to respond to what they saw before them.
Last Seen… was first shown at the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh in 1991. Since then, it has been presented, in its entirety or in abridged form, at the Leo Castelli Gallery, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Dartmouth College’s Hood Museum in Hanover, New Hampshire; Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; the Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne; the Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris; and the Portalen, Koge Bugt Kulturhus, Copenhagen.
Last Seen… was also featured as part of a Calle survey show organized in 2003 by the Centre Pompidou in Paris, which traveled to the Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen; the Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin; and the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. Last Seen, by Sophie Calle will be on view at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum from October 24, 2013 through March 3, 2014. In addition, Sophie Calle will be giving a lecture about the exhibition and the subject of memory at the Museum on October 24, 2013.
For more information about this exhibition or other Museum programming, please visit www.gardnermuseum.org. Below are the paintings and other artworks stolen from the Gardner and listed by the F.B.I.:
Vermeer, The Concert
Rembrandt, A Lady and Gentleman in Black
Rembrandt, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee
Rembrandt, Self-Portrait
Govaert Flinck, Landscape with Obelisk
Manet, Chez Tortoni
Degas, La Sortie de Pesage
Degas, Cortege aux Environs de Florence
Degas, Program for an artistic soiree (1)
Degas, Program for an artistic soiree (2)
Degas, Three Mounted Jockeys
Pages: 1 · 2
More Articles
- Attorney General Merrick B. Garland Delivers Remarks at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York
- National Institutes of Health: Common Misconceptions About Vitamins and Minerals
- Monetary Policy Report Prepared at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Expectations for Future Growth Were Mostly Unchanged
- The Beige Book Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions By Federal Reserve District Wednesday November 30, 2022
- A la Frank Sinatra: "Come Fly With Me", U.S. Department of Transportation Airline Customer Service Dashboard
- Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs: Justice Department Charges Dozens for $1.2 Billion in Health Care Fraud
- Four Individuals Indicted on Wage Fixing and Labor Market Allocation; Conspiracy Aimed at Suppressing Pay for Essential Workers During COVID-19 Pandemic
- Department of Justice: Maryland Nuclear Engineer and Spouse Arrested on Espionage-Related Charges
- Dereliction of Duty: Examining the Inspector General’s Report on the FBI’s Handling of the Larry Nassar Investigation
- Adrienne G. Cannon Writes: Those Lonely Days