Piotr Uklański (b. 1968), Untitled (Skull), ca. 2000
Photograph, print on thick paper
Dimensions: 24 x 30.5 cm, 42 x 52 cm (with frame)
Origin: USA
Iconic for Piotr Uklański's work, this photograph features the nude bodies of a male and female model arranged in the shape of a human skull. On a uniformly black background, as in a still-life vanitas, the artist composes a precise, almost graphic structure from the bodies: the relaxed, enclosed body of the man forms the "nose" and the center of the composition, the circle of joined figures builds the contour of the skull, while the pair of models kneeling with their backs - the "teeth." Uklański juxtaposes eroticism in this way with the motif of death, one of the guiding themes of his oeuvre.
The work belongs to a series of photographs created in the late 1990s and early 2000s, in which the artist uses the medium of staged photography to explore the iconography of pop culture, stereotypes and phantasms of the collective imagination. "Untitled (Skull)" is one of his most reproduced shots, presented, among others, as part of the monographic exhibition "Fatal Attraction: Piotr Uklański Photographs" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Piotr Uklański (born 1968) - one of the most important Polish artists of the middle generation, photographer, author of installations, films, objects and works on the borderline of painting and sculpture. Born in 1968 in Warsaw, he studied at the local Academy of Fine Arts and then at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York. Since the 1990s, he has been active internationally, collaborating with Gagosian Gallery and major contemporary art institutions, among others.
He rose to fame with his installation "The Nazis" (1998), consisting of portraits of actors playing Nazis, and his light dance floor "Dance Floor" (1996). In his art, Uklański often combines his fascination with popular culture with a critical reflection on politics, eroticism, violence and the mechanisms of collective memory. He uses a variety of techniques - from photography and film, to ceramics and textiles, to monumental installations in public spaces - to create ironic yet moving images of modernity. His works are in the collections of such prestigious institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou and the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.
