Skip to main content We do our best to use images that are open source. If you feel we have used an image of yours inappropriately please let us know and we will fix it. Our writing can be punchy but we do our level best to ensure the material is accurate. If you believe we have made a mistake, please let us know. If you are planning to see an artwork, please keep in mind that while the art we cover is held in permanent collections, pieces are sometimes removed from display for renovation or traveling exhibitions. Allen Jones is a British sculptor who was influenced at a young age by psychology. (You can always tell if an artist likes Freud by how many naked women appear as furniture in their body of work.) He was expelled from the Royal College of Art for liking Matisse and the Fauvists too much, but became a successful Pop artist anyways, utilizing visual imagery from popular culture and consumer products. Photographs from fetish magazines especially interested the artist, who later was criticized by feminists for creating more images of the objectification of women.

According to the artist, angry protestors even threw “smoke bombs and stink bombs and God knows what” at one of his larger exhibitions. Stanley Kubrick asked him to design the set of A Clockwork Orange. cheap ruffled chair coversThe catch was, he wanted Jones to do it for free! solid wood rocking chair for saleIn a Kubrick fashion, he told the artist that having his name in the credits should be enough since the film was going to be so famous and successful. chaise lounge chair framesThe director is not a man known for his humility. cheap armchairs irelandThe set designer Kubrick did hire- or rather, convince to volunteer- ended up using Jones’ furniture design as inspiration, so the interior look of the film often gets mistakenly attributed to Jones anyways.black accent chair with ottoman

Yesterday (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in America), the Russian magazine Buro 24/7 published a story about heiress, Artsy investor, and Garage Center for Contemporary Culture founder Dasha Zhukova. In a photo accompanying the article, Zhukova was sitting on a chair held up by a mannequin of a black woman lying on her back, her stiletto-booted feet up in the air.crazy creek chair where to buy I actually saw that chair, at Venus Over Manhattan last spring. It was made by Norwegian artist Bjarne Melgaard, in a tribute to pop sculptor Allen Jones. Jones explored fetishism and BDSM in some of his work, including a series of sculptures in the 1960s that used fiberglass women’s bodies as props for furniture. For the show at Venus Over Manhattan — which mainly featured paintings by 20th-century dealer and artist William Copley, curated by Melgaard under the aegis of Big Fat Black Cock, Inc. (red flag #1) — Melgaard re-created Jones’s pieces, except with mannequins showing women of color.

(Jones’s were white women.) I found the Melgaard works quite disturbing, and myself confused by their innocent, explanation-less display in an art gallery. But, rather than say anything, I had a Zoolander, “I feel like I’m taking crazy pills” kind of moment. Zhukova use of it in the Buro 24/7 photo shoot was … unfortunate, to say the least. (After the controversy sprang up yesterday, the magazine cropped the picture on its site, the Huffington Post explains.) She gave Gallerist a statement of apology, saying the chair’s “use in this photo shoot is regrettable as it took the artwork totally out of its intended context, particularly given that Buro 24/7′s release of the article coincided with the important celebration of the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” The object’s very existence, however, is the real issue here. What is its intended context? Zhukova identifies it as “one of a series that reinterprets art historical works from artist Allen Jones as a commentary on gender and racial politics.”

But is that really the message the chair — and its accompanying two tables and coat rack — sends? Or, put another way, does a work that’s intended to be a “statement” on something have an obligation to do more than just replicate the awful tropes and stereotypes it claims to comment on? In this case, the answer seems like a clear “yes.” It’s nearly impossible to find any kind of insightful takeaway from Melgaard’s use of the body of a woman of color — especially considering the piece was made by a white male artist, has been shown by at least one rich, white male dealer and collector (Adam Lindemann), and bought by a rich, white woman collector, who ends up sitting on it to make a fashion statement. Update, January 22, 2:38pm: Artist Bjarne Melgaard and his dealer, Gavin Brown, have released a bizarre and fairly inexplicable statement in response to the controversy. It says, in part: These sculptures, made by a self professed ‘homosexual’, expose the latent and residual self hatred in a culture where the inhuman and overpowering presence of violence and catastrophe is imminent.

Our tragedy is so evident in our daily experience that Melgaard has nothing left to portray but society in its utter decay. We see this photograph to be extraordinary. Read the whole thing at Artinfo’s In the Air blog. Fine Art - General (233) Mixed Media Art (1418) View All Fine Art American Indian Art (915) Ceramics & Pottery (3530) Greek, Roman & Egyptian Porcelain & China (2646) Silver & Vertu (3977) View All Decorative Art Jewelry - General (1569) Pins & Brooches (1606) Collectibles, Fossils & Minerals (746) Benches & Stools (415) Dressers & Vanities (140) Furniture - General (85) Lamps & Lights (3108) Rugs & Carpets (1966) Shelves & Bookcases (288) Asian Art & Antiques - Indian & South Asian Art Southeast Asian Art & View All Asian Art & Guns & Firearms (2281) Wines & Spirits (215) Learn How to Bid PS: We value your privacy Please Register/Login to access your Invaluable Alerts