The complete Sun Paintings.
The artist has developed very precise and repetitive series—clown sculptures and videos, target acrylic paintings on linen, rubber masks, aluminum face sculptures, oversized wax lightbulbs, striped paintings on polyester, stone sculptures, landscape ink painting, bronze still-life objects, video and sound installations—through which he explores themes of fantasy and desire, branching out in literature and poetry, contemporary cinema, and the visual arts.
A new series of three publications extensively documents three of his most renowned series: the
Landscape Paintings, the
Horizon Paintings, and the
Sun Paintings. In the first volume dedicated to the
Sun Paintings (1992–2012), critic and art historian
Lionel Bovier offers a visual and perceptual analysis, while Morgan Falconer examines the main characteristics of this series in relation to Rondinone's work and biography, stating that, “If the circles do have a connection to Rondinone's biography, it is allegorical. A motif in his work links to a moment of life experience just as a part does to a whole, or as a link in a chain sits next to its partners: we see only the link that Rondinone chooses to illuminate, the rest is in darkness.”.
Ugo Rondinone (*1963, Switzerland) has lived in New York for several years. Using photography, video, painting, drawing, sculpture, sound, and text by turns, Rondinone is a virtuoso of forms and techniques.
Developing surprising sensorial environments, he especially likes destabilizing our perceptions and unsettling our certainties. Rearranging content and formal elements, a personal poetic with elements taken directly from the outside world, he draws us into a synesthetic experience.
See also
Palais #22 – Ugo Rondinone – I Love John Giorno;
Bomb #140;
Album – On/around the work of Urs Fischer, Yves Netzhammer, Ugo Rondinone and Christine Streuli.