Stellusz place

Annette Messager Desires, Disorders

Guest Curator: Marie Shek
Associate Curator: Galit Landau-Epstein.

1.3.22 – 3.9.22

For the first time in Israel, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art is presenting a comprehensive solo exhibition of works by Annette Messager (b. 1943, Berck-sur-Mer, France; lives and works in Malakoff, Paris), one of the world’s most prominent and influential contemporary artists.

Ever since the 1970s, Messager has been creating a wide-ranging and extraordinary body of work. Her oeuvre’s riveting, groundbreaking character revolves in this exhibition around two main axes: desire and disorder. Messager creates in a variety of mediums and on different scales, ranging from intimate drawings to impressive, monumental installations. Her art is concerned with themes and materials that draw, among other influences, on her childhood and personal experiences.

Early on in her career, Messager consolidated her social-feminist worldview, which subverts accepted conventions and presents us with a striking theatrical performance. The power of her work is rooted in the excess, repetition and boldness that characterize her images. As she declares, “My art is my religion. Good art must be deeply moving. Without emotion or desire, there is no meaning to life.” True to the French meaning of her name, Annette Messager is indeed the messenger of a fantastic, pleasure-filled and disturbing world, whose exclusive and uncompromising language represents five decades of art-making.

 

 

Casino, 2004–2005, silk pongee, various

rubber elements, fluorescent lights,computerized system, fans, ropes, driving wheel, hanging system, variable dimensions, photo: Alex Davies,

Laurent Lecat/Stéphane Pons.

 

Them and Us, Us and Them, 2000, gloves,

colored pencils, mirrors, stuffed animals,

soft toys, variable dimensions, photo:

Annette Messager Studio

 

The Interdictions in 2014, 2014, 69 framed drawings, colored pencils, 15 soft elements, fabric, 

photo: Marc Domage

 

My Vows, 1992, framed, manipulated gelatin silver prints, colored pencils on

collection of Tel Aviv Museum of Art, gift of Audrey Irmas to the American Friends of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in honor of Paul and Herta Amir

photo: Elad Sarig

 

YouMe, 2020, acrylic on paper, 

photo: Rebecca Fanuele