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31/8/2000

History Stripped Bare

Vilma Gold, London

Gabriele Di Matteo
Curated by Gilda Williams

Vilma Gold is pleased to present the first exhibition in Britain of Italian artist Gabriele Di Matteo, curated by Gilda Williams, and titled 'History Stripped Bare'.

The principal work on view is an 'epic' group of approximately 100 paintings presenting a selected History of the Western World, from the prehistoric days of the Neanderthal Man, to the Queen Mother's Centenary a few weeks ago. Depicting milestone events, from 'Hannibal Crossing the Alps' to 'Chrisopher Columbus Discovers America' to 'The Assassination of President Kennedy,'these uniformly sized paintings are hung salon-style and arranged chronologically.

The paintings maintain the historical accuracy and recognizability of the orginal images, in a crude and colourful schoolbook-style, except for one decisive detail: all the figures are naked. Jackie Onassis crawls naked, save for the pink pillbox hat perched on her head, over the car to assist the dying JFK; Hitler is naked as he inspects the lines of SS troops, all of whom stand naked to attention. Protestors, politicians, royalty, sports celebrities, scientists, soldiers and popes are all seen stark naked in the familiar poses and acts in which they were captured by the camera or in the imagination of the illustrator, bare-assed save for the footwear and headgear which often identifies them.

'In History Stripped Bare', the sexist tradition of the nude in Western painting is revealed, as everyone, including important, male figures - not just the female odalisque, courtesan or artist's muse - are stripped naked, transformed from real historical figures into allegories and works of art. Through the simple device of 'stripping the figures bare', these monumental, historically loaded events are instantly reduced to comical, improbable, grotesque scenes. The individuals become eroticized, exposed and undermined in their seriousness as they create history. Di Matteo often works with the notion of the power of painting to create a separate reality. The artist plays with the weight of the long, noble history of Western painting - particularly felt in Italy - as an alleged source of Beauty and Truth to invent a different reality only possible in painting.

Also on view is a video of the commercial painter who actually painted these works, as he paints naked; and a series of cameos (sculpted seashell) in which the life of Marcel Duchamp is painstakingly recreated. These images (which Di Matteo previously depicted in painting) are borrowed from the illustrator Andre Raffray, who used childlike illustrations to explain the life of one of the 20th century's greatest and most complex artists. Di Matteo's passion for Duchamp, as a great manipulator of art and painting, is reflected in the exhibition title, taken from Duchamp's 'Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even'.

Di Matteo has been exhibiting since the mid 1980s in Italy, France, Belgium and Switzerland. In 1989 he won the first prize of the Saatchi & Saatchi award for painting in Milan. Gilda Williams is a London-based art critic and curator who spent many years in Italy and is very familiar with the art scene there. She is Commissioning Editor for Contemporary Art at Phaidon Press (London).

Project space: Chris Burden

Opening: Friday, 1 September, 2000, 6pm onwards

Vilma Gold 66 Rivington Street EC2A 3AY London

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