Isa Genzken Untitled (Make yourself pretty!... Lot 6

Isa Genzken Untitled (Make yourself pretty! - Leonardo DiCaprio) 2016 Assemblage of poster, tape, metal foil, plastic orchids and spray paint Approx. 93 x 80 cm. Signed and dated 'Isa Genzken 2016'. - With studio marks. The present work is registered in the Werkarchiv Isa Genzken, Galerie Buchholz, Cologne, Berlin. Provenance Directly from the artist; private collection, Berlin Isa Genzken inspires the viewer of her self-confident and multifaceted works to make his or her own interpretations and associations, for the artist rarely provides an explanation of her works. However, anyone who examines her life and experiences will recognize the influence of music, dance, architecture, New York, and her fondness for the actor Leonardo DiCaprio in her oeuvre. The assemblage offered here brings together a variety of Genzken's signature elements, which are recurrently present as set pieces in her work. Foil and mirror surfaces with their reflections involve the viewer and the surroundings, but do not provide an exact mirror image, but rather a distorted, fragmented representation. For the artist, the white orchid, once a symbol of luxury and exoticism, is the epitome of a plant that is now mass-produced and globally available, yet still possesses an immaculate, pure aura and holds a multitude of possible interpretations. Since the late 1990s, she has integrated photos and posters of the young Leonardo DiCaprio into various of her objects, collages, and artist's books - including the collage book "Mach dich hübsch!" ("Make yourself pretty!"), created around 2000. The artist creates a complex narrative assemblage from these mass-produced products, which are charged with personal layers of meaning but are industrially manufactured, and whose subtitle "Mach dich hübsch!" quotes the aforementioned artist's book. This title is also chosen for the major retrospective of Isa Genzken that will take place in 2016 at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin.