Artist Post 2: Annette Messager

Annette Messager

Annette Messager was born in 1943, in northern France.  She attended the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in Paris France.  Messager has been in numerous shows both solo and group exhibitions her most recent solo exhibition was at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo in 2010.  Messager is known for her installations and her usage of mixed media.   Messager has worked in painting, sculpture, photography, video, embroidery, and installations. 

 What attracts me most to Annette Messager’s work is her usage of mixed media and how she plays with materials and scale.  I find myself magnetized to her usage of everyday materials, such as stuffed animals, fabrics, and embroidery.

Annette Messager has referred to her work throughout the decades as “false biography,” portraying herself as different characters, the Collector, the Artist, the Trickster, and the Practical Woman.  Messager said, “I wanted to look for an identity through others, I asked myself, 'Who am I?' I am nothing. So I asked what people said about women. I appropriated the identity of others." (Riding) Messager’s work relates to my idea regarding everyone plays a role as a character.   At the Hayward Gallery in England Annette displayed work that reflected upon her many titles and characteristics she has given herself.  For example, the “practical woman” can sew and knit as a result, fabrics are hung on the wall representing the “practical woman.  Messager stated in reference to giving herself specific characteristics, "I didn't have any titles, so I gave myself some, in so doing I became an important, clearly defined person. I found my identity through the wide variety of these characters." (Hustvedt)  I find Messager’s work to be very alluring, and interesting to witness how these characteristics have molded her work into new ideas.

Family Remains II (Family II), Haywood Gallery, 2009

Pikes, 1991-1993, Collection Musee National d' Art Modeme, Centre Pompidou, Paris

Inflated-Deflated, 2006, Marian Goodman Gallery Paris, New York

Annette Messager’s Current Exhibition: Museo De Arte Contemporaneo De Monterrey (Mexico) however it ends September 12, 2010.

Interview (Annette Messager and Natasha Leoff) :

http://www.jca-online.com/messager.html 

Works Cited

“Annette Messager.” Journal of Contemporary Art, Inc.  11 September 2010. <http://www.jca-online.com/messager.html>.

“Annette Messager.” Marco: Museo De Arte Contemporaneo De Monterrey. 11 September 2010. <http://www.marco.org.mx/>.

Hustvedt, Siri.  “Puppet Master.” The Guardian.  21 February 2009. 11 September 2010. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/feb/21/annette-messager>.

Riding, Alan.  “Annette Messager: A bold messenger for feminist art.” The New York Times.  26 June 2007. 11 September 2010.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/25/arts/25iht-messager.1.6316141.html>.

Sooke, Alastair.  “Annette Messager’s work is funny, cruel, and its on the way to the UK.”  Telegraph. 18 February 2009. 11 September 2010. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturecritics/alastairsooke/4690683/Annette-Messagers-work-is-funny-cruel-and-on-its-way-to-the-UK.html>.