©

LARI PITTMAN

Untitled #52

1991
acrylic and enamel on paper
30 x 22.25 inches

The silhouette picture depicts "men" as archetypes, employing stereotypical "Victorian" details to identify and mark gendered behavior. The conventions of silhouettes enable the artist to exaggerate the silliness of swallow-tail waistcoats and mourning coats. Pittman chose Victorian period representations to signify "not contemporary." At the same time, "Victorian" suggests rigidity in gender roles as well as sexuality; the contrasts and interweavings of the two are the subject of this series. The range of stereotypes in the picture is clearly readable without any internal articulation. In Untitled # 52 the men are active, erect, "drinking and toasting a deal." The fussy detailing of the silhouettes also affords a number of visual puns, particularly the enormous black arrow erection that graces one of the men. Ornamental details second the characterization: cages, rectilinear elements, and primordial fish complement the men.

The works of this series explore gender roles as they are socially constructed. This meaning echoes concentrically into and out of the center of the picture. At the core of each is an egg marked with + and - as its attributes. These symbols can be read as the binary structure of computer programming or the simple opposition of X and Y chromosomes. Pittman was surprised that some viewers read these plus-and-minus signs in relation to HIV and insists they were never about AIDS. They do however establish the first glimmers of the artist interrogating gender. These partial equations suggest steps of an experiment or a recipe, testing and measuring the differences between Pittman's sense of himself and the "ideal" man he depicts here.

From E. Brown, Lari Pittman Drawings, University Art Museum, UCSB, 1996.

Lari Pittman Exhibition		Past Exhibitions		Exhibition Calendar		Museum Home Page