Andres Serrano
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Andres Serrano (born August 15, 1950) is an American photographer and artist. His work, often considered
transgressive art Transgressive art is art that aims to outrage or cause a reaction from the observer. The term ''transgressive'' was first used in this sense by American filmmaker Nick Zedd and his Cinema of Transgression in 1985. Zedd used it to describe his leg ...
, includes photos of corpses and uses feces and bodily fluids. His '' Piss Christ'' (1987) is an amber-tinged photograph of a
crucifix A crucifix (from the Latin meaning '(one) fixed to a cross') is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the (Latin for 'body'). The cru ...
submerged in a glass container of what was purported to be the artist's own
urine Urine is a liquid by-product of metabolism in humans and many other animals. In placental mammals, urine flows from the Kidney (vertebrates), kidneys through the ureters to the urinary bladder and exits the urethra through the penile meatus (mal ...
. He also created the artwork for the heavy metal band
Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band. It was formed in Los Angeles in 1981 by vocalist and guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...
's '' Load'' and '' Reload'' albums.


Early life

Serrano was born in New York City on August 15, 1950. He is from a half Honduran, half
Afro-Cuban Afro-Cubans () or Black Cubans are Cubans of full or partial sub-Saharan African ancestry. The term ''Afro-Cuban'' can also refer to historical or cultural elements in Cuba associated with this community, and the combining of native African a ...
background, and was raised as a strict Roman Catholic. He studied from 1967 to 1969 at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, yet is considered to be a self-taught photographer. In December 1980, he married artist Julie Ault and they were divorced in 2005. In a 2012 interview, Serrano references Ault as his "first wife" and Irina Movmyga as his current wife. Serrano has said that he is a Christian.


Career

He worked as an assistant art director at an advertising firm, before creating his first work in 1983. Photographer Alex Harsley put Serrano's work in his first New York City show at his Fourth Street Photo Gallery. His work has been exhibited in diverse locations around the world including the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, ''World without End'' (2001), and a retrospective at the Barbican Arts Centre in London, ''Body and Soul'' (2001). His exhibitions have often inspired angry reactions. On October 5, 2007, his group of photographs called ''The History of Sex'' were on display and several were vandalized at an art gallery in
Lund Lund (, ;"Lund"
(US) and
) is a city in the provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, southern Swed ...
, Sweden by people who were believed to be part of a
neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
group. On April 16, 2011, after two weeks of protests and a campaign of
hate mail Hate mail (as electronic, posted, or otherwise) is a form of harassment, usually consisting of invective and potentially intimidating or threatening comments towards the recipient. Hate mail often contains exceptionally abusive, foul or otherwi ...
and abusive phone calls to an art gallery displaying his work, orchestrated by groups of French Catholic fundamentalists, approximately a thousand people marched through the streets of
Avignon Avignon (, , ; or , ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the left bank of the river Rhône, the Communes of France, commune had a ...
, to protest outside the gallery. On April 17, 2011, two of his works, ''Piss Christ'' and ''The Church'', were vandalized. The gallery director plans to reopen the museum with the damaged works on show "so people can see what barbarians can do". Serrano usually makes large prints of about . He has shot an array of subject matter including portraits of
Klansmen The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian extremist, white supremacist, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction in the devastated South. Various historians hav ...
, morgue photos, and pictures of burn victims. He went into the
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with lights and photographic background paper to portray the bedraggled homeless, as well as producing some rather tender but sometimes decidedly kinky portraits of couples. One of these last shows what Adrian Searle of ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' described as "a young couple, she with a strap-on dildo, he with a mildly expectant expression."Searle, Adrian
Negative energy
''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', October 13, 2001. Retrieved February 10, 2008.
Many of Serrano's pictures involve bodily fluids in some way—depicting, for example, blood (sometimes menstrual blood),
semen Semen, also known as seminal fluid, is a bodily fluid that contains spermatozoon, spermatozoa which is secreted by the male gonads (sexual glands) and other sexual organs of male or hermaphrodite, hermaphroditic animals. In humans and placen ...
(for example, ''Blood and Semen II'' (1990)) or human breast milk. Within this series are a number of works in which objects are submerged in bodily fluids. Among these is '' Piss Christ'' (1987), a photograph of a plastic crucifix submerged in a glass of the artist's own urine, which caused great controversy when first exhibited. The work was sold for $277,000 in 1999, which was far beyond the estimated $20,000 – $30,000. Serrano, alongside other artists such as
Robert Mapplethorpe Robert Michael Mapplethorpe ( ; November 4, 1946 – March 9, 1989) was an American photographer, best known for his black-and-white photographs. His work featured an array of subjects, including celebrity portraits, male and female Nude (art), n ...
, Barbara Degenevieve, and Merry Alpern, became a figure whom Senator Jesse Helms, and Senator Alphonse D'Amato, as well as other cultural conservatives, attacked for producing offensive art while others, including ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', defended him in the name of
artistic freedom Artistic freedom (or freedom of artistic expression) can be defined as "the freedom to imagine, create and distribute diverse cultural expressions free of governmental censorship, political interference or the pressures of non-state actors." Gener ...
. (See the American "
culture war A culture war is a form of cultural conflict (metaphorical " war") between different social groups who struggle to politically impose their own ideology (moral beliefs, humane virtues, and religious practices) upon mainstream society, or upon ...
s" of the 1990s). Serrano's series ''Objects of Desire'', from the early 1990s, features close-ups of firearms, photographed at the Slidell, Louisiana home of artist Blake Nelson Boyd. Included is a shot, against a glowing orange background, down the barrel of a loaded .45
revolver A revolver is a repeating handgun with at least one barrel and a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold six cartridges before needing to be reloaded, ...
(belonging to Boyd's grandfather) that was used by Jonas Mekas for the cover of the April–May–June 2007 Anthology Film Archives catalog. Critical reception of Serrano's work has been mixed. In a 1989 ''New York Times'' review, critic Michael Brenson responded to Serrano's series of Cibachrome photographs of iconic objects submerged in bodily fluids: "You cannot consider the content of Mr. Serrano's work without considering his attitude toward photography. It is the photograph that breaks through convention, that makes the search possible and that enables the artist to sort out what he likes and does not like in religion and art. It is the photograph that becomes the vessel of transformation and revelation. The photograph then becomes an icon that, for Mr. Serrano, replaces the false icons in his work. The photograph is clean and purified, the reliquary or shrine in which he clearly believes that the word about the body can be stored and spread." Reviewing later work in 2001, ''Guardian'' art critic Adrian Searle was not impressed: he found that Serrano's photos were "far more about being lurid than anything else... In the end, the show is all surface, and looking for hidden depths does no good." Continuing his use of biological matter, more recent work of Serrano's uses feces as a medium. Serrano's work ''Blood and Semen III'' is used as the cover of heavy metal band
Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band. It was formed in Los Angeles in 1981 by vocalist and guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...
's album '' Load'' (1996), while ''Piss and Blood'' is used on '' Reload'' (1997). The band's guitarist Kirk Hammett learned of Serrano's work after purchasing an art book of his titled ''Body and Soul'' from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Serrano had known of Metallica but was unaware of their music. He appreciated the collaboration and believed it would help expand his audience. Serrano also directed a video for
industrial metal Industrial metal is the fusion of Heavy metal music, heavy metal and industrial music, typically employing repeating Heavy metal guitar, metal guitar riffs, sampling (music), sampling, synthesizer or music sequencer, sequencer lines, and Distor ...
group
Godflesh Godflesh are an English industrial metal band from Birmingham. The group formed in 1982 under the original title O.P.D. (later Fall of Because) but did not release any complete music until 1988 when Justin Broadrick (guitar, vocals, programmi ...
, " Crush My Soul". In 2008, Serrano's piece ''The Interpretation of Dreams (White Nigger)'' was selected to participate in The Renaissance Society's group exhibit, "Black Is, Black Ain't". Serrano adopted the
alter ego An alter ego (Latin for "other I") means an alternate Self (psychology), self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original Personality psychology, personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other ...
"Brutus Faust" to create the full-length album ''Vengeance Is Mine'' in July 2010. The album contains covers of classic songs from the 1960s, and original compositions including four songs written by Serrano's wife, Irina Movmyga, as well as one song co-written by Serrano, Thad DeBrock, and album producer Steve Messina of New York City–based band Blow Up Hollywood. Coinciding with the release of the album are the videos ''Goo Goo Gaga'', ''Love Letters'', and ''Bad Moon Rising''. ''Goo Goo Gaga'' consists mostly of black-and-white footage from the 1940s, which makes parallels between the Depression and the present day, with the images of "Brutus" shot by Francesco Carrozzini. ''Love Letters'' is footage taken from cult director Joe Sarno's ''Flesh and Lace''. ''Bad Moon Rising'' consists entirely of footage Serrano compiled from several short films by John Santerineross. All of these short films were edited by Vincent V. In 2013, Serrano made a work of art called ''Sign of the Times'' by collecting 200 signs from homeless people in New York City, usually paying $20 for each sign. He described the work as "a testimony to the homeless men and women who roam the streets in search of food and shelter. It's also a chronicle of the times we live in." Over the course of several months, Serrano engaged with over 85 homeless individuals in Manhattan and photographed them for a series called ''Residents of New York'', a site-specific
public art Public art is art in any Media (arts), media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and phy ...
exhibition on display from May 19 to June 15, 2014, at the West Fourth Street – Washington Square subway station, on LaGuardia Place (between West 3rd and
Bleecker Street Bleecker Street is an east–west street in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It is most famous today as a Greenwich Village nightlife, nightclub district. The street connects a neighborhood popular today for music venues and comedy as well as a ...
s), at Judson Memorial Church, and in phone booths and posters around the city. The installation was produced and developed by More Art, a nonprofit organization based in New York that is dedicated to the development of socially engaged public art projects. Serrano initially photographed homeless individuals in the city in 1990 for a series of studio-style portraits titled ''Nomads''. In ''Residents of New York'', he removed his signature studio elements, focusing instead on personal connectivity and interaction directly on the streets of New York City, where the homeless live.Sutton, Benjamin
Andres Serrano wants New Yorkers to stop ignoring the homeless
''
Artnet Artnet.com is an art market website. It is operated by Artnet Worldwide Corporation, which has headquarters in New York City. It is owned by Artnet AG, a German publicly-traded company based in Berlin that is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Ex ...
'', May 23, 2014. Retrieved May 27, 2014.


See also

*
Banksy Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist, and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive ep ...
*'' Blood Cross'' *
Cinema of Transgression __notoc__ The Cinema of Transgression is a term coined by Nick Zedd in 1985 to describe a New York City–based underground film movement, consisting of a loose-knit group of artists using shock value and black humor in their films. Key players ...
* New French Extremity * Nick Zedd * Piss Christ * Shock art *
Transgressive art Transgressive art is art that aims to outrage or cause a reaction from the observer. The term ''transgressive'' was first used in this sense by American filmmaker Nick Zedd and his Cinema of Transgression in 1985. Zedd used it to describe his leg ...
*
Load (Album) ''Load'' is the sixth studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica, released on June 4, 1996, through Elektra Records in the United States and Vertigo Records internationally. It was recorded between May 1995 and April 1996 primarily in ...
* Reload (Album)


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Serrano, Andres 1950 births African-American Christians African-American photographers American photographers People with albinism Artists from New York City Hispanic and Latino American artists Living people American people of Honduran descent American people of Cuban descent Censorship in the arts Obscenity controversies in photography Obscenity controversies in art People of Afro–Cuban descent American album-cover and concert-poster artists Brooklyn Museum Art School alumni 20th-century African-American people