Philosophy of the Parvenu, 1990
14 panels, photocopy and acrylic on Stonehenge paper mounted on board
82 x 180
cm
signed, dated and numbered with panel number (on reverse)
SOLD
Provenance
13 Verity Street, Melbourne
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1990
Exhibited
'Lindy Lee Black + Black + Black', 13 Verity Street, Michael Wardell Gallery, Melbourne 1 -24 November 1990
Literature
M Chiu, B Genocchio, 'Lindy Lee', Art and Australia, 2001, illus.p. 30
'Philosophy of the Parvenu' features the distinctive duotone treatment for which Lee is best known. Her restrained use of black against a field of Prussian blue yields an intensely deep image. Here a photocopy of a face is repeated fourteen times in the work. The image begins as a recognizable face taken from J.A.D Ingres, 'La Grande Odalisque' (1814).
Through a process of photocopying the reproduced image by Ingres, and by continually cycling that image through a photocopier, Lee creates a succession of images that increasingly lose detail with each copy, becoming darker and less like the original.
