Born in 1950
American nationality
Photographer
Number of works in the collection : 216

LISTEN TO THE CULTURAL MEDIATOR’S COMMENTARY

Mathilde accompanies you during your visit:

QUOTES FROM THE ARTIST

“There is a certain aesthetic that I have to live up to. I choose to make beautiful objects, even if they’re about things that make you uncomfortable.”

“If my work didn’t have that urge, that duality, the contrast between the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, it would just be making pretty pictures. It would be decorative work, and nobody would want it from me.”

“My home is full of XVth and XVIth religious art. I have no sympathy for blasphemy, I don’t like blasphemists. It’s just the opposite of my nature.”

IN THE EYES OF YVON LAMBERT

“The photographic series of the Nomads was my first encounter with the work of Andres. (…) Immediately, I told the friend I was travelling with that I wanted to exhibit this artist I didn’t know anything about yet. There had indeed been all the scandals that heralded the wave of political correctness, with the wrath of the National Endowment for the Arts, furious at the knowledge that creative aids could be used to defend works that the members of the commission considered obscene. But I confess that I was discovering Serrano’s work, without being aware of the problems that Piss Christ had caused… quite simply because, despite my ignorance of this artist, I did not care about the silly reactions of these American ultra- conservatives.”

ADDITIONNAL RESOURCES TO READ AND WATCH

Interview Magazine – Artist Andres Serrano gives us a tour of his bizarre religious memorabilia (2017)
Youtube, Artnet – Artist Interview With Andres Serrano (2013)
The Guardian – Une histoire de violence: pourquoi Andres Serrano a transformé sa caméra en torture (2019)