Sophie Calle — Dérobés — Emmanuel Perrotin Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: November 13, 2013 → January 11, 2014

Sophie Calle, Dérobés — Galerie Perrotin Absence, disparition, on l’a beaucoup dit, sont autant de thèmes chers à Sophie Calle. Avec le parcours Dérobés, l’artiste en explo... 2 - Bien Critique

What Do You See?

“On March 18, 1990, six paintings by Rembrandt, Flinck, Manet and Vermeer, five drawings by Degas, one vase, and one Napoleonic eagle were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. The frames of the Rembrandt, Vermeer and Flinck paintings were left behind. In 1994, after being restored, the empty frames were hung back in place, further emphasizing the painting’s absence. I asked the curators, guards, other staff members and visitors to tell me what they saw within these frames.”

Purloined, 1994-2013

“Following thefts involving a Lucian Freud painting and two Turners belonging to the Tate Gallery in London, a Picasso at the Richard Gray Gallery in Chicago, and a Titian from the Marquis of Bath’s residence, Longleat House, I asked the curators, guards, and other staff members of the Museums, gallery or collection, to describe the missing works.”

Le Major Davel, 1994

“On the night between August 24 and 25, 1980, the painting by Charles Gleyre, Major Davel, was partly destroyed by fire that ensued from an act of vandalism. All that remained of the canvas was the crying soldier in the bottom right-hand corner. I asked the curators, guards, and other staff members at the Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne to describe what they remembered of the missing part of the painting.”