Publisher's Synopsis
Laurent La Gamba A Contribution to American Art History, (26 revisited works from the Whitney Museum) Preface by Lyn Cole The aim of the series was to revisit some famous American works of art, exhibited at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York, through the lens of the artist's very specific use of camouflage. Laurent La Gamba was born on January 23rd, 1967, in Bondy, France. After studying at the Sorbonne in Paris he travels abroad, staying for long periods of time in Los Angeles, California, in the United States. There his painting evolves hand in hand with photography. In 2001, he begins the first in situ series of camouflages and pro-cryptic installations. His work tilts into conceptual photography at this point. Trained as a painter, Laurent La Gamba's photography rely on performance, and his self-instigated phenomenon has gained him worldwide recognition. In A Contribution to American Art History, each photograph is an interpretation by the artist, a perfectly subjective appropriation of the work in hand. The figure of the artist is central but it merely serves to emphasise the exceptional character of the original works. Like a moth uses procrypsis on a wall to camouflage itself from the world, La Gamba uses procrypsis ironically to both hide within these famous works of art and in so doing to stand out by writing another page of art history. His use of camouflage as both hiding and being on show is therefore very novel. Let us not forget that La Gamba was the first artist to set up public camouflage installations from 2001 well before it was a trend. You will delight in this reinterpretation of the Whitney works as seen by La Gamba as they border on self-portraiture and tell you both about the artist and the works themselves. Open your eyes anew!
