Von, Van, Von

Inez van Lamsweerde, ME, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, December 12, 1998-January 23, 1999.

Ellen von Unwerth, Original Sin, Staley-Wise Gallery, New York, March 5-April 3, 1999.

Annika von Hausswolff, Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York, February 27-April 3, 1999.

America's undying infatuation with decadent European nobility was apparent last season, when exhibitions by three glamorous European photographers, Dutch Inez van Lamsweerde, German Ellen von Unwerth, and Swedish Annika von Hausswolff, took place within a four-month period. Features by van Lams-weerde and von Unwerth, both well-known fashion photographers, could also be seen in the New York Times Magazine Fashion Supplements for women and men last February and March. In galleries, an interest in staged theatrics, beds, and sexual innuendo was evidenced by all three artists.

At the moment, van Lamsweerde appears to be well along in her ascent to the peak of the international art world. In addition to appearing at the Matthew Marks 22nd Street space, her 1997 solo show The Widow traveled to galleries in Cologne, Munich, Amsterdam, and London; and the current series went on to Paris after a six-week run in New York. Judging by the weight of her press package, magazine coverage has been extensive. Tours in the United States and Europe are also planned for von Unwerth's Original Sin, the second in a series on that subject commissioned by the Tequila Sauza Estate Collection--"inspired by the spirit's sensual, myterious reputation."

Matthew Marks' enormous Chelsea gallery oozes discrimination and clout, and van Lamsweerde's work was presented appropriately: large, discreetly framed, and well spaced. The exhibition contained only ten pieces, each printed in an edition of six. One 490 x 380 Cibachrome was selling for $10,000, and the rest cost $6000. Original Sin, [Begin Page 86] on the other hand, was shown at Staley-Wise, a more modestly sized gallery in Soho. The exhibition contained six color C-prints and twenty-one black-and-white silver gelatin prints of various sizes, mostly in editions of thirty, and priced from $1000 to $2500. Stacked against a wall, even more framed photographs were easily visible through the glass door leading to the back room, something you would never see in the posh empty spaces at Marks (though Staley-Wise specializes in celebrity photographers and photographs).

Van Lamsweerde's new group of large cibachrome photographs, ME, resembles those advertising campaigns linking brand names like Benetton or Ralph Lauren to diverse groups of well-fed, attractive people. But in spite of their apparent prosperity, the immobilized models don't look happy at all. Limbs cropped, heads pressed against propped up pillows, they glare up from neatly-made beds. Their arms are splayed out helplessly and their heavily bronzed faces seem scorched, as if they had just escaped from a fire. Some seem to extend a sexual invitation. They all appear to be waiting for something--rape, perhaps, or death.

The viewer walked in on a triptych of women in black. On either side were two self-portraits; one with astonished eyes wide open, the other with the face completely obscured by hair. In the center picture was an older woman with sunken cheeks and unfocused eyes. To the left of the triptych was a photo of a stubbly-bearded young man who looked from a distance like a flat-chested blonde woman with a dirty face in a lace dress. Opposite him was another man whose red t-shirt, half on or half off, is not completely pulled over his head, leaving his stomach exposed. His blasé face, cheeks sucked in and lips pursed, peeks out through the neck-hole like a monk's through his cowl, or a pharaoh's through his headdress. In the back room, one glamorous model with long blond hair and elegant hands has the air of a medieval tomb sculpture. Nude under her blanket, another woman has her...