Marie Pittroff : Lurid (Homage to Lou Reed)
portrait installation 2000–2002
oil on canvas
each 40 x 40 cm
The conceptional picture-installation entitled ‘LURID’ shows various snapshots, facets and portraits of the New York artist, Lou Reed. In his life and in his works, Lou Reed embodies the tragic-comical outsider, presenting an ambiguous and vulnerable nature combined with defiant, anarchic self-assertion in the struggle to cope with the chaos of life in a big city.
The picture-installation consists of a series of paintings (of a yet unfixed number) whose elements of equal format are arranged in pairs, each portrayal together with a monochrome picture (oil on canvas, 40 X 40 cm or 16 X 16 inches).
As regards the hanging of the pictures, this installation is flexible, adapting to various spatial conditions.
The portraits were modelled on photographs by Mick Rock, Stephen Shore and Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and others.