“Madonnas” make us feel the light of bruised and hurt bodies of women, captured as deities, in a theatrical scenography, becoming art icons and venered women.
The sublimed nudity of women perceives the day in black and white. The shine of a radiant epiderm, embellished by welcoming reflections, reveals luminous divinities, whose presence submerges us. Under the deep shadows of women masked and envelopped in mysterious nights, the poetic melancholy of death presence appears.
Joel-Peter Witkin confronts us to the reality of bodies, of our immemorial fears and anxieties, of our fragility, our weaknesses and even our own faults.
Careful, oh, careful…
The choice of materials, inducing the contrast of colors, of lights is always at the center of the artist attention, acting then as small ceramic sculptures or larger iron installations.
The structure of the artwork is theorised precisely and in a detailed way beforehand. Then, during the elaboration and realisation of the work, materials affirm their interiority and freedom. Thus establishing this practical alchemy.
To the rough texture of the first material, sensitivity and delicacy of the artist come through the surface of the work.
Born in 1939 in Brooklyn, New York
Lives and works in Albuquerque, New Mexico (ISA)
Public Collection
Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, FR
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, FR
Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris, FR
Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, FR
Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Strasbourg, FR
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, ES
Museo d’arte contemporanea Castello di Rivoli, Turin, IT
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, NL
Museo de Arte Abstracto Español, Cuenca, ES
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, JP
Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH, USA
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, USA
Columbia College, Chicago, USA
George Eastman House, Rochester, NY, USA
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, USA
Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO, USA
Library of Congress, USA
Los Angeles County Moseum of Art (LACMA), CA, USA
Moderna Museet, Stockholm, SE
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA
Musée des Beaux-Arts du Nouveau-Mexique, Santa Fe, NM, USA
National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C., USA
National Gallery, Toronto, Canada
National Museum, Bogota, CO
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA, USA
Princeton Art Museum, Princeton, NJ, USA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, USA
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, CA, USA
The Kinsey Institute, Bloomington, IN, USA
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA
The Museum of Fine Art, Houston, TX, USA
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY, USA
The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., USA
Center for Creative Photography – University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
The Whitney Museum, New York, NY, USA
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, USA
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA, USA