Beschreibung:

Bill Viola The Quintet of the Silent 2000 Video installation comprised of single-channel color video on wall-mounted plasma display. 28 1/2 x 47 1/2 x 4 in. (72.4 x 120.7 x 10.2 cm). This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist and is from an edition of five.
Provenance James Cohan Gallery, New York Exhibited Chicago, Chicago Art Fair, May 11 – 14, 2001; Hanover, New Hampshire, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Permanent Collection Installation, July – October, 2002 (another example exhibited); Indianapolis Museum of Art, Permanent Collection Installation, July 2 – November 3, 2002 (another example exhibited); Dublin, Royal Hibernian Academy, Gallagher Gallery, Like Painting, October 10 – November 24, 2002 (another example exhibited); Rotterdam, Nederlands fotomuseum, Foto Biënnale Rotterdam, 2003 (another example exhibited); Genazzano, Castello di Colonna, Zero Visibility, March 8 – April 13, 2003 (another example exhibited); São Paulo, Paço das Artes, Reincarnated Painting, May 27 – September 9, 2004 (another example exhibited); Paris, Art Public Contemporain, Nuit Blanche, October 2 – 3, 2004 (another example exhibited); London, The National Gallery, Bill Viola THE PASSIONS, October 22, 2003 – January 4, 2004 (another example exhibited); Hanover, New Hampshire, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Transcending Time: Recent Work by Bill Viola and Lorna Simpson January 22 - March 12, 2005 (another example exhibited) Literature F. Gierstberg and B. Vroege, eds., Experience, the media rat race: photography, art, architecture, fashion, publicity, advertising, entertainment, technology, Rotterdam, 2003, pp. 186-187 (illustrated); J. Walsh, ed., Bill Viola THE PASSIONS, Los Angeles/London, 2003, p. 74 and 267 (illustrated); J. Thibodeaux, “Simple Complexities”, Nuvo, February 11, 2004; S. L. Berry, “Arts angels”, IndyStar, March 11, 2007 Catalogue Essay Bill Viola has explored themes of perception, memory, knowledge and humanity in his wealth of video work since the early 1970s. In the Passions series, devoted to human emotions, Viola underscores the pivotal influence human psychology has had, thru art history, and transforms this reality into a modern equivalent using his mastery of digital technology and set production. For the Passions Viola created four pieces that comprise his Quintet Series, five performers stand in close proximity to one another, exhibiting bouts of emotion so powerful that you are convinced it will consume and overtake the group. Slowed down to a 17:1 ratio, Viola enables every minutia to appear as a grandiose action, there is an oblique sense of crescendo as you stand in front of the screen. With no sound, the works appear in a serene focus, emphasizing the visual and physical display of the performers. Their distraught nature gives way to momentary lapses into calm expression, whereby the actors regroup and prepare for the next onslaught of emotion to move them. Oscillating between happiness, joy, grief, surprise, the characters in essence reveal a multitude of feelings. The Quintet of the Silent, 2000, is unique among the Quintet series. The cast of actors carefully and slowly emoting the most profound sense of sadness and grief are all male. Occasionally the figures show reverence toward one another, with a small gesture or touch, but for the majority of the work they act independently with no acknowledgement, or sense of contact. With a black background, the figures appear in a neutral space and allow the physiognomy of what dominates the viewers' focus. Psychologically charged, The Quintet of the Silent is at once somber and stunningly moving. Inspired by his time spent as Scholar-in-Residence at the Getty Institute in 1998, Viola created these works as a reflection of his studies and interest in Medieval and early Renaissance devotional painting. As the artist describes, “I’ve been looking at the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, when making art drastically changed. You not only had the development of vantage-point perspective, but you also had a population that was becoming increasingly mobile thanks to the money generated by a rising merchant class. People were hitting the roads, and all of a sudden there was a demand for pr