Louvre Abu Dhabi
Jenny Holzer & Auguste Rodin
Auguste Rodin, Walking Man, On a Column (L’Homme qui marche sur colonne) 1900
& Jenny Holzer, Marble relief of cuneiform text 2017
The interplay between Rodin’s sculpture and the marble relief created by Jenny Holzer was by far the stand out for me in the Louvre Abu Dhabi collection. Aside from the fact that this was the only female artist that I saw represented in the entire collection, it was also one of the few pieces commissioned for the gallery. The interaction with the surrounding architecture and the placement of Rodin’s work told a captivating story of the old, the new and all that lies in-between. The text is a creation myth written in one of the earliest forms of writing, recreated from a Mesopotamian tablet that dates back to 1250 BCE.
“Jenny Holzer (USA, b. 1950) transformed three literary treasures into stone reliefs that reflect on the origins of civilisation, the recording of history, and the dynamics of cross-cultural exchange.” (taken from the gallery label)
The scale of this work, the sublime materiality of marble and the texture created by the text was both familiar and somehow new. I thought Holzer’s work was brilliant in its ability to stand out from and yet blend in with the spectacular architecture.
Cy Twombly
Untitled I-IX, Series of 9 panels, 2008
The first work encountered on entry to the main gallery was none other than the super fantastic Cy Twombly. Although not my favourite example of his work, I loved that he was given such a prime position. I instantly thought of Brett Whiteley when I saw this series, possibly because of the colour but also there is something in the gesture of the brush strokes that reminded me of Whiteley.
Brett Whiteley
The Balcony, 1975
Source: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/116.1981/
