Sophie Calle: Revelations ‘Beyond the Curtain’ at Perrotin.
Last year, I had the good fortune to be at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis for the opening of their Sophie Calle exhibition and to attend a conversation between Sophie Calle and Laurie Anderson.
Calle in person was, much like her work, charming and sly, playful and almost naughty, making work that is very French and flaunting boundaries that perhaps American artists wouldn’t (such as getting a job in a hotel as a maid and investigating and photographing the contents of a guest’s room). There is an investigative aspect to her work, which often includes text of her own writing.
As with much conceptual art, it helps to know what you are looking at. At Perrotin, I was given a walkthrough by Omar Akhtar whose knowledge and enthusiasm added much to my enjoyment and understanding of the work.
The exhibition featured works from three series Because, Picassos in Lockdown, and Phantom Picassos. In these works, Calle investigates her response to Picasso, the overwhelming nature of his artistic legacy, and at the same plays with controversy regarding “cancelling” Picasso.
In addition, there’s a very interesting installation which consists of a photograph of dried flowers and below it a shelf on which are photos in lucite frames as well as a vase with flowers. The piece is called In Memory of Frank Gehry’s Flowers, 2014. The text besides the work explains that Calle met Gehry in 1984 and that since then, he has sent her flowers on the day of her exhibition openings. The Vase on the shelf is Gehry-designed and in this way Calle elevates a simple gesture into a work of art.
Because consists of a wooden frame from which hangs a wool cloth with embroidered writing on it, explaining the photo that is behind it. To see the photo you must lift the cloth. As the exhibition text notes, “Because thus reverses the traditional relationship between image and text, and disturbs our conventional perception and processing of information.”
There are two works, Phantom Picassos where over a drawing by Picasso (not an actual Picasso but Calle’s rendering of a Picasso missing from the museum, on loan at the time elsewhere), Calle in her fluid stream of consciousness prose journals her reactions to the work and to Picasso’s legacy. She is thus both appropriating an image and making something new that is entirely her own.
The other Picasso-related series, Picassos in Lockdown, has a specific history. In 2023, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Picasso’s death, Calle was invited to install a show of her work in dialogue with Picasso’s.
Calle explains: “I hesitated: I could not face the overwhelming presence of his work. When the museum closed due to the pandemic, the paintings were covered for protection. Wrapped up, hidden, Underneath — a ghost-like, less intimidating presence that I immediately photographed.” The covered Picassos also speak to the idea of Picasso being “cancelled.” But even this Calle renders enigmatically, with the covered pieces golden and beautiful in their own way.
It was all very clever, and very Sophie Calle.