Wim Delvoye: Introspective

This enthusiastic retrospective looks beyond the easy controversies and shocks of the conceptual/pop/Gothic artist, presenting a complexly beautiful thinker committed to the belief that "a work of art is only interesting if it disturbs the viewer." In the relatively brief time since Delvoye's first solo exhibit in 1990, the Flemish provocateur has become a major player in the international art world. Among his many iconic works are a machine that creates feces ("Cloaca"); his Art Farm China, at which he tattoos live pigs; and the ornate and technically astounding statues of dump trucks he fashions out of laser-cut steel. While not everyone's ideal artist (Delvoye believes "only in what I can see%E2%80%A6 I have never seen the soul and I have never seen love."), this retrospective presents a charming and intellectually rigorous portrait of the art world star and his provocative oeuvre. Rather than simply seeking controversy, he comes across here as productively troubling the morality, aesthetics, and practices common in contemporary art markets. The laudatory critical essays are accompanied by striking reproductions of his work, so that in the end, an artifact as seemingly simple as a print of the artist's lipstick-smeared anus becomes not only aesthetically stunning but the salutary source of deep thought and unresolvable inquiries. Photos & illus. (Sept.)