Art Lies, Volume 52, Fall 2006 Page: 20
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Fascinating Personality
a case study of self-representation in the '60s
Bond disliked white eggs and, faddish as he was in many small
things, it amused him to maintain that there was such a thing as
the perfect boiled egg.
-Ian Fleming, From Russia With Love (1957)Lars Bang Larsen
John Davidsen, Playmate of the Month, 1966
An action in 6 partsAny discussion of the evolution of contemporary visual art starting with
the '60s usually begins with Pop Art, the conquest of space and the dema-
terialization of process, while performative and autobiographical con-
cerns follow shortly thereafter, in large part relegated to feminist strategies
employed in the '70s. The "star persona"-supposedly a definitive symp-
tom of the conflation of market hype and appropriation-emerges full force
in the '80s, developing further with artists such as Sarah Lucas and Tracy
Emin in the '90s.
Contrary to this linearity are the works of largely unsung individuals,
including Danish artist John Davidsen (b. 1944), which contradict any
attempt at rigid categorical/historical progression. While the artist-as-motif
is probably as old as the concept of art itself, it is significant that Davidsen's
work, beginning as early as the mid '60s, exemplifies how the artist can
take center stage in terms of artistic representation without becoming the
work's source or determining presence and without assuming the role of
authorship typically negotiated in 20th century avant-garde practice.
Davidsen's work simultaneously catches the artist's persona in the
crosshairs of style, self and body, both public and private. A self-taught
artist and member of The Experimental Art School (along with later lumi-
naries such as Per Kirkeby and Poul Gernes), the line between Davidsen's
persona and work is erased in much of his oeuvre. He stages himself in the
role of the seducer and consummate aesthete. In doing so, the work simul-
taneously becomes dematerialized, performative and engaged in direct
dialogue with the products of the culture industry-a conflation of three
decades of aesthetic and artistic concerns and practice.20 ARTL!ES Fall 2006
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Bryant, John & Gupta, Anjali. Art Lies, Volume 52, Fall 2006, periodical, 2006; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth228017/m1/22/: accessed March 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .