October 21st – November 19th 2011
MAGNAN METZ GALLERY
521 West 26th Street, New York, NY 10001
Magnan Metz is pleased to present The Bathers, Revisited. This small exhibition will be on view from October 21 – November 19, 2011. Pujol recently joined Magnan Metz. As an introduction to his performance work, the artist is a re-staging a selection of performative photographs in Magnan Metz project space from his successful 2001 series. The Bathers are revisited a decade later, and is a curatorial compliment to the exhibition of Ariana Page Russell which will run concurrently in the main gallery.
During summer 2001, Ernesto Pujol photographed the solitary rituals of masculinity, i.e. male bodies privately regarding themselves. Pujol choreographed a series of intimate gestures, inviting three men in their 20s, 30s and 40s to perform in the same white bathroom. These were not larger-than-life porn stars relaxing after the money shot, nor towering drag queens wiping off makeup. There was nothing extraordinary about them, no tanned musculature or model beauty. Pujol was interested in exploring the male gaze turned on itself, placing men in the position traditionally inhabited by women in the history of painting.1
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