Robert Barry Art Lovers, 2006
Specifications
Slipcase is made of laminated coated paper 115g mounted on cardboard 1.7
28.8 x 28.8 x 2.5 cm
Contains 36 sheets, 27.6 x 27.6 cm each
Printed on Hello Silk paper 250g
Printed by Arte-Print
Bound by Trehout
Production
Edition of 270 numbered copies and 30 artist's proofs
Produced and published by mfc-michèle didier in 2006
©2006 Robert Barry and mfc-michèle didier
NB: All rights reserved. No part of this edition may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission of the artist and the publisher.
Art Lovers is an unbound book of 36 plates. Each plate superimposes two layers : a photographic portrait and a word outline cut into a black surface. The portrait is covered by the black layer turning the opening made by the word into a keyhole.
If we go back to "Belmont, 1967" published in 1977, one of Robert Barry's most "narrative" books and a tribute to Ad Reinhardt, we find the same sense of mystery, the same idea of a hole in a black surface acting as a window onto a face, without comments or explanation.
In Art Lovers, the mystery is even greater. The viewer can barely see the portraits and has to infer their subjects from a few sparse and vague elements. The 31 "Art Lovers" in question were photographed by Robert Barry himself and are friends of his. Artists, gallerists, critics, collectors and curators such as Sol Lewitt, Jonathan Monk, Leo Castelli, Yvon Lambert, Anne Rorimer and René Denizot are hidden "through" the words. They are there but it is impossible to identify them.
6.69 x 4.72 x 1.57 in ( 17,4 x 12,4 x 4,9 cm )
11.02 x 8.27 in ( 28 x 21,5 x 0,6 cm )
10.63 x 7.09 in ( 27,6 x 18,6 cm )
