More about Marc Quinn
- All
- Info
- Shop
Works by Marc Quinn
Contributor
All said and done, I guess I like Marc Quinn…despite his choice in materials. Blood, feces and human DNA are some of his favorite things.
But he doesn’t do it for the shock value. Or, at least not completely. His work questions human beings’ relationship with their physicality, inside and out. These questions either spark spiritual arousal or existential dread, depending on your mood.
He’s best known for his ongoing project Self (1991) but works like Alison Lapper Pregnant (2005) also brought him into the public eye. Quinn takes bodies that stray away from the stereotypical definition of “normal,” like that of fellow artist Alison Lapper, who was born without arms and possesses shortened legs. He also represents bodies of transsexuals to probe normal ideas of beauty. You know, those annoying standards set in Greco-Roman times that are now enforced by dumb magazines.
Speaking of abnormal bodies and dumb magazines, in 2008 he also sculpted an oddly contorted Kate Moss in solid gold. Though maybe in Moss’s case Quinn’s making a statement on how emaciated girls who have “great bone structure” are the 21st century Aphrodite or Venus. I’ll keep my doughnuts, thankyouverymuch.
Featured Content
Here is what Wikipedia says about Marc Quinn
Marc Quinn (born 8 January 1964) is a British contemporary visual artist whose work includes sculpture, installation, and painting. Quinn explores "what it is to be human in the world today" through subjects including the body, genetics, identity, environment, and the media. His work has used materials that vary widely, from blood, bread and flowers, to marble and stainless steel. Quinn has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Sir John Soane's Museum, the Tate Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, Fondation Beyeler, Fondazione Prada, and South London Gallery. The artist was a notable member of the Young British Artists movement.
Quinn is internationally celebrated and was awarded the commission for the first edition of the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square in 2004, for which he exhibited Alison Lapper Pregnant. Quinn's notorious frozen self-portrait series made of his own blood, Self (1991–present) was subject to a retrospective at Fondation Beyeler in 2009.
Quinn lives and works in London.
Check out the full Wikipedia article about Marc Quinn
