One Wall, One Work: Fred Wilson

In 1992, Fred Wilson created the now historic installation, “Mining the Museum” (organized by the Contemporary and at the Maryland Historical Society, both in Baltimore). The same year, the artist had his second solo presentation at the New York gallery, Metro Pictures. There, he created an installation titled, “Panta Rhei - A Gallery of Ancient Classical Art.” The work currently on view at Krakow Witkin Gallery is from this 1992 body of work.

The untitled piece currently on view situates, together, a plaster bust reproduction of the Apollo Belvedere (a 2nd century A.D. Roman copy of a 3rd century B.C. Greek original that depicts the deity) with a plaster cast reproduction of a low relief image of what is most likely a Pharaoh from around 400-200 B.C. Key to Wilson’s work is not only the juxtaposition of sculptures of these two figures from different cultures, but also the continually changing reception of and knowledge about both figures. The art historian Kenneth Clark (1903–1983) once remarked about the Apollo Belvedere sculpture (on permanent view at the Vatican), “...for four hundred years after it was discovered, the Apollo was the most admired piece of sculpture in the world. It was Napoleon's greatest boast to have looted it from the Vatican. Now it is completely forgotten except by the guides of coach parties, who have become the only surviving transmitters of traditional culture.” Meanwhile, the plaque-like form that Wilson chose to juxtapose the Apollo with is of a type that is still rather mysterious to historians in terms of its use as it is a roughly formed, small-scale object whose subject, while most likely a Pharaoh or demi-god, is not defintively known.