Joel-Peter Witkin: Select works

JOEL-PETER WITKIN American, b. 1939 Joel-Peter Witkin is a photographer whose images of the human condition are undeniably powerful. For more than twenty years he has pursued his interest in spirituality and how it impacts the physical world in which we exist. Finding beauty within the grotesque, Witkin pursues this complex issue through people most often cast aside by society -- human spectacles including hermaphrodites, dwarfs, amputees, androgynes, carcasses, people with odd physical capabilities, fetishists and "any living myth . . . anyone bearing the wounds of Christ." His fascination with other people's physicality has inspired works that confront our sense of normalcy and decency, while constantly examining the teachings handed down through Christianity. His constant reference to paintings from art history, including the works of Bosch, Goya, Velasquez, Miro, Botticelli and Picasso are testaments to his need to create a new history for himself. By using imagery and symbols from the past, Witkin celebrates our history while constantly redefining its present day context. Visiting medical schools, morgues and insane asylums around the world, Witkin seeks out his collaborators, who, in the end, represent the numerous personas of the artist himself. The resulting photographs are haunting and beautiful, grotesque yet bold in their defiance a hideous beauty that is as compelling as it is taboo. Witkin begins each image by sketching his ideas on paper, perfecting every detail by arranging the scene before he gets into the studio to stage his elaborate tableaus. Once photographed, Witkin spends hours in the darkroom, scratching and piercing his negatives, transforming them into images that look made rather than taken. Through printing, Witkin reinterprets his original idea in a final act of adoration. Joel-Peter Witkin lets us look into his created world, which is both frightening and fascinating, as he seeks to dismantle our preconceived notions about sexuality and physical beauty. Through his imagery, we gain a greater understanding about human difference and tolerance.

Joel-Peter Witkin Artist Statement

I cannot image love nor the atoms which make up all things nor can I image God. I am overwhelmed by existence and the splendor and misery we call history. All these things are natural to man. I can hold these things like sand between my hands and be comforted because, although the reason and purpose of life is beyond comprehension, it is within us. It is in stones and flowers, too. In the Natural Law. What is within us, I believe, is the reality that Someone, Something created all things. That the very passion of life, of love and hatred is the acceptance or negation of God. The poet E.E. Cummings described a lost soul as "a man falling on all sides". William Blake, a believer, was overwhelmed by creation. He once wrote, "I can look at a knot in a tree until it frightens me". Both these statements are radiant with intelligence. They have become art because they have the power to affect our reality, even our souls. Great art is about transcendence. It elevates like. This is why I try to make great art. It is my vocation, my prayer. Like the clown before the altar, his "prayer", his art, was to perform. Some thought this blasphemy. The aware knew it was the most sublime act of love of which he was capable.

"Feast of Fools", Mexico City, 1990

It took a year of phone calls and appointments to get me into the main forensic hospital. There, a doctor was showing me corpses. He opened a drawer by mistake which was filled with body parts from accidents, murders and suicides. I was challenged to make something wonderful which would be a metaphor for the psychosis of our time. I spent the next day gathering fish, fruit and other objects for the photograph. I returned to the hospital with my camera, lights and props. There I selected about fifteen of the objects from the drawer. I then secluded myself in a room which bolts from the inside and began creating the composition. It took about an hour to complete. This image is one of my most powerful images. It is powerful, not only for its subject matter, but because of its importance as a mirror of human history.

"Vanity", NM, 1990

There was a slaughter house outside of Albuquerque. I would sometimes drive there to see some of the Mexican workers I knew. On one occasion, I saw a beautiful white bull. I went back to my studio to make drawings for a still life which would also be a portrait of an animal. This combination of genres was totally unique! I returned to the slaughter house and chose a large white bull with its "cape" and front hooves. It took me six hours to position, light and photograph the White Bull. As with all my work, this image is indelible but formally beautiful. It is about life and taking life and food and the choices of what we need and love. It is also about the continuing history of the still life and my contribution to that genre through photography.

"Satiro", Mexico, 1992

Prior to my going back to Mexico, I received a video of a film from my translator. The film was a "shaman" played by a man without arms or legs. In a note accompanying the film, the translator assured me that he spoke with this man and that he was interested in being photographed.

As always, I made drawings to clarify and define my ideas. I would make this man a "Satyr". As it happened, my brother-in-law had shot an elk the day before. I called him and reserved two legs of the elk which I then had taxidermied. When I met the arm-less and leg-less man in Mexico, I showed him my drawings and the elk legs. He agreed to be photographed the next day after we settled his fee as a model.

Since a "Satiro" was a nature god, the photograph would have to be made in nature-a departure from most of my work at that time. I drove one of the two cars loaded with the translator, equipment, the model, many props and an assistant. I spotted a site that worked for me. We began setting up. Then I noticed something wonderful. In the distance was a shepherd and his flock. I told Eniac, my assistant and translator, to get the shepherd and his flock to our location and to make him a generous offer. I posed the model, placed the horns and leaves on his head while his sister positioned the elk legs. I then had the dog placed in front of the tree then waved to the shepherd to move his sheep.

I looked through the camera and was instantly transplanted to another age. Something wonderful like this always occurs when I photograph. It is though the image was meant to exist as an aesthetic and spiritual reward.

WITKIN, JOEL-PETER photographer and poet

born in Brooklyn September 13, 1939

Group show at the Museum of Modern Art, NYC 1973- 1974 Student poetry fellow at Columbia University 1974 Received his B.F.A. at Cooper Union 1980 Exhibited in Projects Studio One, NYC 1981 Group show at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art 1982 Exhibited in Galerie Texbraun, Paris Exhibited in Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris 1983 Exhibited in Kansas City Art Institute Exhibited in Stedelijk Mus, Amsterdam Exhibited in Fraenkel Gallery Exhibited in Pace Wildenstein MacGill Gallery, NYC 1984 Exhibited in Fraenkel Gallery Exhibited in Pace Wildenstein MacGill Gallery, NYC 1985 Exhibited in San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Group show at the Whitney Biennial 1986 Received his M.F.A. at U.N. Mex Exhibited in Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris Exhibited in Brooklyn Museum Group show at Palis de Tokyo, Paris 1987 Exhibited in Fraenkel Gallery Exhibited in Pace Wildenstein MacGill Gallery, NYC Exhibited in Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris Exhibited in Fahey/Klein Gallery, L.A. 1988 Exhibited in Centro de Arte Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid 1989 Exhibited in Pace Wildenstein MacGill Gallery, NYC Exhibited in Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris Exhibited in Palais de Tokyo, Paris Exhibited in Fahey/Klein Gallery, L.A. 1990 Exhibited in Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris 1991 Exhibited in Fraenkel Gallery Exhibited in Pace Wildenstein MacGill Gallery, NYC Exhibited in Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris Exhibited in Fahey/Klein Gallery, L.A. Exhibited in Museum Of Modern Art Haifa, Israel 1993 Exhibited in Fraenkel Gallery Exhibited in Pace Wildenstein MacGill Gallery, NYC Exhibited in Photo Picture Space Gallery Osaka, Japan 1994 Exhibited in Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris Exhibited in Taipei Photo Gallery, Taiwan 1995 Exhibited in Fraenkel Gallery Exhibited in Pace Wildenstein MacGill Gallery, NYC Exhibited in Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris Exhibited in Photo Picture Space Gallery Osaka, Japan Exhibited in Guggenheim Museum, NYC Exhibited in Interkamera, Prague Exhibited in II Castello de Rivoli Museum., Turin 1996 Artist in residence Zerybthia Rome Italy summer of this year Lecturer Am. Acad. Rome Exhibited in Encontros de Fotografia, Columbia, Portugal Exhibited in Rencontres de la Photograpie, Arles, France Exhibited in Taipei Photo Gallery, Taiwan Group show at La Photographie Contemporaine en France 1997 Exhibited in Fraenkel Gallery Exhibited in Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris Exhibited in Pace Wildenstein MacGill Gallery, NYC Exhibited in Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris Exhibited in Fahey/Klein Gallery, L.A. Group show at Foto Masson, Goteberg, Sweden Group show at Hanlin Museum, South Korea Group show at Hayward Gallery, London 1998 Exhibited in Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe Exhibited in Wildenstein Gallery, Tokyo Exhibited in Pace Wildenstein, L.A. Exhibited in Taipei Photo Gallery, Taiwan Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris. Artist in residence Berlin fall of 1998 and Paris winter 1998. Exhibited in Encontros de Fotografia, Columbia, Portugal Exhibited in Camera Work, Berlin, El Escorial, Spain Exhibited in Fahey/Klein Gallery, L.A. Group show at Bogardenkapel, Bruges Group show at Srasborg Mus. D’Art Moderne et Contemporaine 1999 Soc. Photoraphic Edn Exhibited in Sternburg Museum, Prague Exhibited in Mesiac Fotographie, Slovakia Group show the Ansel Adams Ctr., San Francisco Group show at Camera Work, San Francisco Group show at The Louvre, Paris 2000 Exhibited in Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris Exhibited in Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris Exhibited in Hotel de Sully, Paris Exhibited in Caherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago Exhibited in Ctr. Contemporary Art, Honolulu Group show at Musee Bourdelle, Paris Group show at John Gibson Gallery, NYC Group show at The High Mus. Art, Ga., 2001 Lecture at Yale University Exhibited in Photo Picture Space Gallery Osaka, Japan Exhibited in Etherton Gallery, Tucson Group show at The Fotografie Forum, Frankfort 2002 Exhibited in Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris Exhibited in Stadt Mus., Jena Exhibited in Picture Photo Space, Osaka Exhibited in Infinito Gallery, Turin Group show at National Gallery of Canada Group show at Hotel de Sully, Paris Group show at The Israel Musem, Jerusalem Group show at The Whitney Museum, NYC 2003 Exhibited in Galeria Juaa de Aizpura, Madrid Exhibited in Photoes Pana, Madrid Exhibited in Le Garage Galerie, Toulouse Group show at H. Lunn Collection, Lille Group show at Photology, Milan Group show at Akira Ikeda Gallery, Berlin 2004 Exhibited in Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris Exhibited in Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris Exhibited in ARCO, Madrid Group show at National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa Group show at Yancey Richardson Gallery, NYC 2005 Exhibited in Fahey/Klein Gallery, L.A. Exhibited in Etherton Gallery, Tucson Exhibited in Linda Durham Gallery, Santa Fe Exhibited Gary Tatinstian Gallery, Moscow Exhibited in Moscow House Photography Group show at Guggenheim, Bilbao Group show at D’Art Del’Yonne Group show at Wessel and O’Connor Fine Art, NYC Group show at Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago 2006 Lecturer at Ecole Superier, Paris Lecturer at Spanish Embassy, Moscow Solo show Witkin Vintage, Hasted Hunt, NYC Solo show Café Francoise, Brussels, Paris Photo Group show at Cite Internationale: “The Book,” M.E.P. Paris Group show at Houston Center for Photography, Silver Retrospective 2007 Exhibited in Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris Lecturer at Medici Palace, Seravezza Exhibited in Paris Photo Group Show at National Gallery of Canada: The Invisible Landscape

Joel-Peter Witkin: Select works