top of page
Search
  • Press

These fascinating wild cards...


ART GALLERIES—CHELSEA


Claudette Schreuders


In her carefully painted carved-wooden figures and quiet works on paper, this South African artist depicts strangely proportioned and emotionally inscrutable figures, often in moments that are both intimate and oddly prosaic. A naked couple assumes the missionary position in a sculpture titled  “In the Bedroom,” embracing in an un-passionate-looking stack. A standing man and a bent-over woman, both naked only from the waist down, staidly demonstrate an alternate coupling option in “Little Table.” The press release notes that a 1917 lovemaking manual is one source of inspiration here, but sly art-historical references also come into play. Complementing Schreuders’s sexual vignettes are such works as a macabrely comic, wall-mounted crucifix, in which Christ is recast as a schoolboy in knee socks, and a teak bust of the South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa.


These fascinating wild cards illuminate the artist's interest in the public function of sculpture—even when its subject is private life.

Johanna Fateman

https://www.newyorker.com/goings-on-about-town/art/claudette-schreuders-6-10-19


25 views0 comments
bottom of page