(Self) Portraits
@ Zurich Space
Parkett is pleased to announce (SELF) PORTRAITS, a survey exhibition of over ninety portraits and self-portraits made by artists especially for Parkett in the last three decades. On view at Parkett’s Zurich Space, the artists included in this retrospective expand, challenge, transform, and push forward the traditional parameters of the portrait and self-portrait. The show and its theme provide a new perspective on Parkett’s 33 years of direct collaborations with 270 artists from around the world.
For as long as people have been making art, they have been portraying themselves and others. The artists included in this exhibition employ a wide array of techniques, media, and methods, including printmaking, photography, collage, and sculpture, among others. Through the use of both traditional and conceptual representation, the works explore the subjective, emotional, physical, or political identities of their subjects.
Below is a survey of the exhibited self-portraits and portraits.
Find more information on the Parkett Zurich exhibition space here
A) Self-Portraits
Read a Parkett text on Robert Gober
Parkett Vol. 27
Robert Gober’s Edition for Parkett is a replica of a page in the weekend edition of the New York Times. The artist has assembled and invented a mixture of news items, advertisements, weather reports, and stock market news for October 4, 1960 . In the midst of wedding announcements and an item on Runt, a teenager’s dog that was the victim of veterinary malpractice, we find a story on the mysterious death of a six-year- old boy, whose namesake is the artist himself, born in 1954. We are confronted with Gober’s evocation of daily life that oscillates between the utter banality of domestic happiness and sordid drama. We react with indifference, or with a sense of self-indulgent or horrified identification.
Quote from Parkett
“As assemblages of props, costumes, and sets, Gober’s installations of domestic dreamscapes pose as sites for the unfolding of narrative sequences; each element serves as a silent accoutrement to the human drama awaiting to be enacted therein… in this potent mise-en-scène we are implicated as participants. Gober’s fabricated, home-like spaces are uncanny in the truest sense of the word.”
Nancy Spector, Parkett No. 27, 1991
"Untitled", 1991 (for Parkett 27)
Lithograph on newsprint with handtorn edges,
printed on both sides and folded three times,
22 1/8 x 13 7/8” (56,7 x 35,4 cm),
hand-colored with coffee by the artist,
printed by Maurice Sanchez & Joe Petruzzelli, Derrière L’Etoile Studio, New York,
Ed. 75/XXV unique pieces, signed and numbered
Sold Out. For updates on availability, please inquire by joining our waiting list
Read a Parkett text on Douglas Gordon
Parkett Vol. 49
Quote from Parkett
“Douglas Gordon exposes certain time-based effects that are at the root of our sense of psychological security. This process is implemented by re-emphasizing key elements from carefully researched material, as well as using specially made video and film footage to restructure the mass of connections that influence an artist’s activity. What could be described as aestheticising the dynamic of trauma and reassurance has been combined with an ongoing desire to acknowledge his position as a self-conscious artist working within the specific power structures of the art world.” Douglas Gordon interview with Liam Gillick, Parkett No. 49, 1997
"Signature", 1997 (for Parkett 49)
The artist’s bite, 2 1/8 x 2” (5,5 x 5 cm),
on Fabriano paper 160g/m2, 10 x 8 1/4” (25,6 x 21,1 cm),
bound in the magazine,
Ed. 50/XX, numbered
Sold Out. For updates on availability, please inquire by joining our waiting list
Read a Parkett text on Dan Graham
Parkett Vol. 68
Quote from Parkett
“I think I am experiencing my second childhood through my two-way mirror work. I’ve never read Lacan, but I feel my work involves the Lacanian ‘mirror stage’ of childhood, when the young child first experiences his/her sense or non-sense of an ego. I know that through my art I make new friends, which I barely had as a child. And through my ‘hobbies’ of rock music, architectural tourism and travel, I stay young. I know I am a child when I watch other Aries people (I am an Aries) behaving childishly, like me.”
Dan Graham interview with Carmen Rosenberg Miller, Parkett No. 68, 2003
Additional Quote
“… Dan Graham worked as an art dealer, photographer, filmmaker, critic, producer, and writer whose seemingly never-ending vision of interlinking and exploring various disciplines defined and changed the way one perceives a cultural system … His attitude towards art and artists can be described in a quote: "All artists are alike. They dream of doing something that's more social, more collaborative, more real than art."… He can be considered a conceptual artist whose focus lies on cultural phenomena. Graham repetitively incorporates video, performance, glass, and mirror pavillons … such as the one reproduced in his Parkett edition “Fun for Kids at my Work in a Park in Manhattan”. “-Fineartmultiple
"Fun for Kinds at my Work in a Park in Manhattan" (for Parkett 68)
Piezo Ultrachrome Pigment print on Hahnemühle paper,
13 x 16 1/2” (32,9 x 41,9 cm),
printed by Laumont Editions, New York,
photograph by Rosalind Cutforth,
Ed. 60/XX, signed and numbered on the reverse
Read a Parkett text on Jenny Holzer
Parkett Vol. 40/41
Quote from Parkett
“The fact that Holzer’s ’mock-cliché’ truisms sound like the vices, virtues, and prescriptions printed at the turn of the century is at least stylistically no accident, for as she has said about these, her first writings: ‘I try to polish them so they sound as if they had been said for a hundred years, but they’re mine…’”
Joan Simon, Parkett No. 40/41, 1994
"With You Inside Me Comes the Knowledge of My Death", 1994 (for Parkett 40/41)
Silver snake ring with inscription,
sterling silver, 925/000,
matt, centrifugal cast, hand-finished,
felt-lined wooden case, 1 5/8 x 3 3/8 x 2 1/8” (4,1 x 8,8 x 5,5 cm),
produced by Patrick Muff, Cologne,
Ed. 75/XXV, signed and numbered
Sold Out. For updates on availability, please inquire by joining our waiting list
Read a Parkett text on Christian Jankowski
Parkett Vol. 81
Quote from Parkett
“Gazing at the pieces (Living Sculptures), it is as though we see their possible states converging. We see hard, metal art products that subscribe to highbrow values of exclusivity and critique become one with an ephemerally performative form of entertainment, reflecting the pop-cultural values of accessibility and empathy; and while collectors appraise the material used in the production process, children clamber all over the figures.”
Jörg Heiser, Parkett No. 81, 2007
Additional Quote
“Christian Jankowski works across video, installation, photography, and the mass media formats of television and cinema… As in his series of unique photographs “Christian Jankowski reads Parkett”… his practice is largely rooted in performance and evolves out of a collaborative process. ... With a subtle sense of humor pervading his work, Jankowski explores the boundaries between art and commerce, challenging the notion of the transformative power of artistic creation as it seeps into popular culture. Known for his critiques of contemporary art production, his work engages both the social and the aesthetic.” -Artspace
"Christian Jankowski reads 50 Parkett Artists Collaborations", 2007/2008 (for Parkett 81)
50 unique photographs by 50 photographers,
approx. 9 3/4 x 7 3/4” (25 x 20 cm) each,
Ed. 1/II, each signed and numbered
Plus unique set of all unique 30 photographs
Sold Out. For updates on availability, please inquire by joining our waiting list
Read a Parkett text on Christian Marclay
Parkett Vol. 70
Quote from Parkett
“A great deal of Marclay’s output, possibly the majority of it, is visual or plastic in nature. And yet even this is as much about sound recording; perhaps more so, because it concerns the ubiquity of sound in culture. Marclay’s work is about the socially inscribed ‘flip side’ of sound; it is about the very fact that I could use the phrase ‘flip side’ as unthinkingly as I just did, realizing only as I typed it that the term derives from records, and is thus infinitely apropos for use there.”
Philip Sherburne, Parkett No. 70, 2004
"My Bad Ear", 2004 (for Parkett 70)
Life-size bronze cast by Modern Art Foundry, Astoria, NY,
Ed. 60/XX, signed and numbered
Limited availability
Complimentary shipping.
Read a Parkett text on Paul MaCarthy
Parkett Vol. 73
Quote from Parkett
“I was interested in therapy, and I talked about venting. I made a hollow box covered in—the type of bent metal hot rods (Vented Cube Drawing, 1975). Then I wrote this poem about venting. Venting the subconscious. I want to vent a situation...”
Paul McCarthy interview with Jeremy Sigler, Parkett No. 73, 2005
"Peter Paul Skin Sample", 2005 (for Parkett 73)
15 color photographs (digital laser prints)
in cardboard box, 6 5/8 x 10” (16,8 x 25,4 cm) each,
Ed. 36/XII, signed and numbered certificate
Very limited availability
Read a Parkett text on Jeff Koons
Parkett Vol. 19
Quote from Parkett
“Jeff Koons’s art is most amusing. It is provocative in the most archly targeted way. It makes grown art critics sick.”
Glenn O’Brien Parkett No. 19, 1989
"Signature Plate", 1989 (for Parkett 19)
Porcelain, with a decal fired at 1652 F,
diameter 10 1/4” (26 cm),
made by Porzellanfabrik Langenthal, Switzerland,
Ed. 80/L, numbered, signature integrated into the picture
Very limited availability
Read a Parkett text on Yayoi Kusama
Parkett Vol. 59
Quote from Parkett
“She achieves a protean transformation of the ‘polka dot’ pattern into the accumulation of banal found objects (airmail stickers, working gloves, sofa springs) and stuffed protruding sculptural units and maintains stylistic independence from major artistic schools of her time—Abstract Expressionism, Pop, Minimalism, Nouvelle Tendence—while indicating some overlap with their experimental characteristics.”
Midori Matsui, Parkett No. 59, 2000
"Infinity Nets", 2000 | (for Parkett 59)
Silkscreen print on mirror,
10 x 8 1/4” (25,5 x 21 cm),
Ed. 70/XXX, signed and numbered on the back
Sold Out. For updates on availability, please inquire by joining our waiting list
Read a Parkett text on Mariko Mori
Parkett Vol. 54
Quote from Parkett
“In Mori’s work since 1996 the contours and shaping pressures of the contemporary image-stream are explored less by way of the classical-modernist strategy of distanciation and analysis than by impersonation: She uses her body as a lens that captures the light of the contemporary image-stream, and through certain enhancements and exaggerations makes it clear what the image-stream really wants of us.”
Norman Bryson, Parkett No. 54, 1998/99
"Star Doll", 1998 (for Parkett 54)
Doll with microphone, earphones,
boots, white stockings, red plaid skirt, top in blue,
black and white, transparent bracelets,
yellow shoulder pads, brooch and blue hair,
10 1/4” (26 cm) high,
Ed. 99/XX, signed and numbered
Very limited availability
Read a Parkett text on Pipilotti Rist
Parkett Vol. 48
Quote from Parkett
“Pipilotti Rist... exploits the general acceptance of the video medium as a kind of substitute for the easel painting—and, above all, its role as a component of spatial installations. The specific appeal of video, as employed by Rist, also incorporates such shadow disciplines as the pop video, the television commercial, and the trailer. Here, Rist’s idiom, schooled in Expanded Cinema, receives a highly contemporary infusion of entertainment value. The rheme of art has become her theme; hence the self-dramatization that encompasses not only the means of production but also her existential self-definition as a subject within society, as a woman, and as an artist.”
Marius Babias, Parkett No. 48, 1996
"I've Only Got Eyes for You- (Pin Down Jump Up Girl)", 1996 (for Parkett 48)
3-D image, color photograph under lenticulated film,
mounted on flexible plastic with four suction cups,
to be attached to TV screen when not in use,
photograph by Rita Palanikumar,
8 1/4 x 11” (20,8 x 27,8 cm),
Ed. 80/XX, signed and numbered
Previously sold-out. Last few remaining. Complimentary shipping.
Read a Parkett text on Pipilotti Rist
Parkett Vol. 71
Quote from Parkett
“I keep working at my material until it resembles my own synaptic activities and mental states. Aren’t all cultural practitioners motivated and driven by the need to materialize their inner images as a means of escaping their isolation?” Pipilotti Rist, interview with Elisabeth Roth, Parkett No. 71, 2004
Additional Quote
A life-size cutout of the artist herself, this four-color print on fabric is a statement of womanhood and feminism. The blood trickling down her leg alludes to menstrual cycles, mirroring the red knee-high sock covering the other, and clashing oddly with her plain facial expression and fifties-style housewife dress. Designed to be fastened to the wall, chair or table, the fabric structure of the cutout recalls an apron, as does the title The Help. Paired with the halo-like structure adorning Rist's head it becomes the stance of blessing people like a saint, yet also the gesture of helplessness, that both a damsel in distress and a child in need would perform, resulting in an iconographically complex piece.” -Fineartmultiple
"The Help", 2004 (for Parkett 71)
Cut-out, 4-color print on fabric,
ca. 70 7/8 x 43 5/16” (178 x 110 cm),
with 7 straight pins (plus 7 spare pins) to fasten it to a wall, a chair, or a table, support,
Thomas Ryner, Photo by Martin Stollenwerk,
printed by Plotfactory, Weisslingen, Switzerland,
Ed. 70/XX, signed and numbered
Complimentary Shipping.
Read a Parkett text on Rudolf Stingel
Parkett Vol. 77
Quote from Parkett
“In most cases, however, Stingel’s works are both medium and membrane in one. They are skin. They record traces of use-of being walked on, of tearing, of flaking. As permeable membranes, they mark and ‘regulate’ the locus of border and transition in spatio-physical terms (between wall and picture, floor and covering, painting and sculpture, architectural and institutional space), and in temporal-economical terms (between that which produces and that which consumes).”
Jörg Heiser, Parkett No. 77, 2006
"RS", 2006 (for Parkett 77)
Signet ring, 18 carat gold,
approx. 1 x 3/4 x 1/2” (2,5 x 2 x 1,5 cm),
jewelry box, production by Markus Frühauf,
jeweler, Meran, Italy,
Ed. 22/XVI, initials engraved and numbered
Sold Out. For updates on availability, please inquire by joining our waiting list
Read a Parkett text on Rirkrit Tiravanija
Parkett Vol. 44
Quote from Parkett
“Art has many different levels and you have to make your own level. You have to decide where you want to be, and then just go for that. It doesn’t have to do with anything else in the world. Just yourself. You get there, and maybe nobody sees it, but you get there. It is, at least as I think of it, a spiritual thing.”
Rirkrit Tiravanija, Parkett No. 44, 1995
Additional Quote
“Using human interaction as his primary material, Rirkrit Tiravanija goes beyond performance to create socially-engaged conceptual works that blur the boundaries of art in novel ways and bridge the division between public and private … As with his edition for Parkett, a copy of his own pair of glasses with engraved words, Tiravanija initiates ways to enable the public to be a part of the art-making process ….”. -Artsy
"Untitled", 1995 (450/375) (for Parkett 44)
Gold-rimmed Ray Ban glasses with engraving on the lenses:
LONG RIVER
A SINGLE LINE
ORANGE SAFFRON
AT TWILIGHT,
5 3/8 x 1 3/4” (2,5 x 16 x 6,7 cm),
Ed. 80/XXV, numbered, with certificate and artist’s seal
Complimentary shipping
Read a Parkett text on Rosemarie Trockel
Parkett Vol. 33
Quote from Parkett
“What language cannot do easily, and what Trockel achieves in her composite objects, is the simultaneous: she makes us spectators, at one and the same moment, of high art objects—and their tending, after hours, by the cleaner.”
Anne M. Wagner, Parkett No. 33, 1992
"Studio Visit", 1992 (for Parkett 33)
Photo-etching and acid-free transparent foil
in embossed strawboard matte,
mounted on wood with hanger,
image: 8 1/4 x 8 1/4” (21 x 21 cm);
frame: 15 x 13 x 3/8” (38 x 33 x 0,8 cm),
printed by Peter Kneubühler, Zurich,
Ed. 80/XX, signed and numbered
Sold out. Please inquire
B) Portraits
Read a Parkett text on Richard Prince
Parkett Vol. 72
Quote from Parkett
“He owns concretely. He owns the stuff of his (and our culture’s) dreams—houses, rare books, and cars—and he turns that stuff into art by hijacking their images. He acquired all that he has by taking aesthetic possession. His work, by employing a canny approach to the mediated image, takes abstract ownership of a type of imagery that deals with desire and consumption.”
Dike Blair, Parkett No. 72, 2004
"Good Revolution", 1992 (for Parkett 34)
Ektacolor print,
paper size: 30 x 40” (76,2 x 101,6 cm),
image size: 30 x 33 1/2” (76,2 x 85,1 cm),
Ed. 66/XXVI, signed and numbered
Sold Out. For updates on availability, please inquire by joining our waiting list
Read a Parkett text on Markus Raetz
Parkett Vol. 8
Quote from Parkett
“Since the 1960s, Markus Raetz has been playing with a perspective that is not mathematical but at once pragmatic and intuitive. It leads him to explore distortions obtained by certain—extravagances of perspective, sometimes pushed to the point of anamorphisis. Such works present a problematic of the function of sight, replacing the conventional hierarchy of the eye over the world.”
Claude Ritschard, Parkett No. 42, 1994
"Untitled", 1986 (for Parkett 8)
Aquatint and sugar lift on Zerkall-Vellum,
bound in the magazine,
10 x 16 1/2” (25,4 x 42 cm),
printed by Peter Kneubühler, Zurich,
Ed. 100/XV, signed and numbered
Read a Parkett text on Charles Ray
Parkett Vol. 37
Quote from Parkett
“Generic, infinitely reproducible, Ray himself became the consumerized ideal, an American standard, at once the victim and the victimizer of technological replication.”
Klaus Kertess, Parkett No. 37, 1993
"The Most Beautiful Woman in the World", 1993 (for Parkett 37)
Photo edition,
each comprising a set of nine unique color snapshots of Tatjana Patitz,
4 x 6” (14,8 x 10,2 cm),
Ed. 60/XXIII, signed and numbered
Very limited availability.
Commodo cursus magna, vel scelerisque nisl consectetur et. Donec id elit non mi porta gravida at eget metus.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper.
Sed purus sem, scelerisque ac rhoncus eget, porttitor nec odio. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
Vivamus pellentesque vitae neque at vestibulum. Donec efficitur mollis dui vel pharetra.
Praesent id libero id metus varius consectetur ac eget diam. Nulla felis nunc, consequat laoreet lacus id.
Donec id justo non metus auctor commodo ut quis enim. Mauris fringilla dolor vel condimentum imperdiet.
Commodo cursus magna, vel scelerisque nisl consectetur et. Donec id elit non mi porta gravida at eget metus.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper.
Sed purus sem, scelerisque ac rhoncus eget, porttitor nec odio. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
Vivamus pellentesque vitae neque at vestibulum. Donec efficitur mollis dui vel pharetra.
Praesent id libero id metus varius consectetur ac eget diam. Nulla felis nunc, consequat laoreet lacus id.
Donec id justo non metus auctor commodo ut quis enim. Mauris fringilla dolor vel condimentum imperdiet.
Commodo cursus magna, vel scelerisque nisl consectetur et. Donec id elit non mi porta gravida at eget metus.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper.
Sed purus sem, scelerisque ac rhoncus eget, porttitor nec odio. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
Vivamus pellentesque vitae neque at vestibulum. Donec efficitur mollis dui vel pharetra.
Praesent id libero id metus varius consectetur ac eget diam. Nulla felis nunc, consequat laoreet lacus id.
Donec id justo non metus auctor commodo ut quis enim. Mauris fringilla dolor vel condimentum imperdiet.
Commodo cursus magna, vel scelerisque nisl consectetur et. Donec id elit non mi porta gravida at eget metus.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper.
Sed purus sem, scelerisque ac rhoncus eget, porttitor nec odio. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
Vivamus pellentesque vitae neque at vestibulum. Donec efficitur mollis dui vel pharetra.
Praesent id libero id metus varius consectetur ac eget diam. Nulla felis nunc, consequat laoreet lacus id.
Donec id justo non metus auctor commodo ut quis enim. Mauris fringilla dolor vel condimentum imperdiet.
Commodo cursus magna, vel scelerisque nisl consectetur et. Donec id elit non mi porta gravida at eget metus.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum id ligula porta felis euismod semper.
Read a Parkett text on Gilbert & George
Parkett Vol. 14
Quote from Parkett
“Gilbert & George consider themselves warriors ‘fighting for a total expression.’ They want to involve all our experiences, intellectual and physical, even the most dramatic, the most banal, the most shunned by social custom. Their daily struggle for artistic creative action becomes a metaphor of the unceasing desperate activity of man.”
Mario Codognato, Parkett No. 14, 1987
"Gilbert & George", 1987 (for Parkett 14)
Photograph, mounted on cardboard folded in the middle,
10 x 16 1/2“ (25,5 x 42 cm),
Ed. 200, signed and numbered
Very limited availability. Complimentary shipping.