Joel Shapiro: 20 Elements

2019

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Summary

In 2005, the sculptor Joel Shapiro was invited by the Musée d'Orsay in Paris to participate in their project series titled 'Correspondences'. The aim of 'Correspondences' is to achieve new insights into the complexity of art through confronting some of the museum's 19th century masterpieces with ambitious contemporary works. Shapiro initially felt that a wax figure of a dancer by Degas would be an appropriate match for one of his own figures, but then opted for Jean Baptiste Carpeaux's 'La Danse,' a large-scale manifestation of human sensuality which once adorned the exterior of the Paris Opera. The sculpture had caused a major scandal in its time and is said to have influenced Rodin a generation later. The abandon of Carpeaux's six dancing figures gives a vivid sense of ecstatic human movement. Shapiro achieves the same through abstract means. His bold construction consisting of 20 wooden elements painted in ultra-bright colors evokes a burst of movement that corresponds dramatically to the 19th century work.