Art in the Time of Love
In honour of Valentine's Day, we take a look at some of our favourite artistic depictions of love...
By
Shin Hui Lee
February 14, 2023
When we think of love, we tend to envision it in its quintessentially romantic form- passionate, ecstatic and all-consuming. In reality, love is so much more complicated than that. From the unconditional love we reserve for family to the intrinsic love we cultivate for self, there are countless avenues and means by which we can experience love. This Valentine’s day, we explore 14 artworks that make our hearts skip a beat.
1. NAN GOLDIN. RISE AND MONTY KISSING, NEW YORK CITY. 1980.
Rise and Monty Kissing, New York City is one of 700 moments captured in Nan Goldin’s iconic photo narrative The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. It is, as she puts it, the diary she lets people read. Documenting the yearning for intimacy between friends and lovers, the images are irresistibly candid, mirroring the mercurial yet often rapturous nature of such relationships. Here, the couple grasp at each other as their open mouths envelop- their palpable desperation implying some irrational fear that they will extinguish if they let go or come up for breath. Such is the urgency of love.
2. MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ AND ULAY. REST ENERGY. 1980.
In performance art piece Rest Energy, artists and then-lovers Marina Abramović and Ulay face each other as they draw a bow and arrow, each leaning back while holding one side. Microphones pick up their accelerating pulses and erratic breathing as the arrowhead is directed fatally at Abramović’s heart. What seems initially as an anxiety-inducing scenario gradually eases into a peaceful portrait of trust, a journey so natural to those in love and prepared to stake themselves upon the extremism of that emotion.
Watch Rest Energy in motion here.
3. MARC CHAGALL. THE BIRTHDAY. 1887
Marc Chagall once said that “love and fantasy go hand in hand”. The Birthday is his purest manifestation of this sentiment. Painted just a few weeks before his marriage, it is a tableau of loving bliss and devotion. The two bodies defy all logic; the man floats whimsically above the woman, his body twisting magnificently backwards and around to reach her lips, her feet lifting off the crimson carpet as she stares wide-eyed up at him. In the heady throes of love, Chagall assures us that nothing needs to make sense.
4. WOLFGANG TILLMANS. I DON’T WANT TO GET OVER YOU. 2000
As though taken from a moving car, I don’t want to get over you evokes the euphoric essence of rolling mountains, vast grassy plains and endless skies. By deliberately tinting the landscape blue and permeating the surface with dark streaks of ink, Wolfgang Tillmans subverts its primordial beauty and plunges us instead into a state of melancholy, reminiscent of the romantic anguish we feel when we move from union to separation. Yet, as the beacon of light emerges from behind the clouds, we are reminded of our capacity to heal and hope again.
5. FELIX GONZALEZ-TORRES. UNTITLED (PERFECT LOVERS). 1991
Untitled (Perfect Lovers) consists of two battery-powered clocks originally set to the same time, which inevitably fall out of sync before being reset. In grappling with his grief over the passing of his HIV-positive partner, Gonzalez-Torres wrote to him: “Don’t be afraid of the clocks, they are our time, the time has been so generous to us…we are a product of the time, therefore we give back credit where it is due: time. We are synchronized, now forever. I love you.”. In this way, the clocks serve as a moving metaphor for the unpredictable passing of time, as well as the resilient faculty that is love.
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6. TRACEY EMIN. I CRIED BECAUSE I LOVE YOU. 2015
One of Tracey Emin’s later neon works I Cried Because I Love You reveals the complex interiority of what it means to love and lose over and over. The act of crying, so innate that we are born in tears, serves as a parallel to the natural yet unexpected processes of falling in and out of love. Emin’s use of her own handwriting lends a particular poignancy, allowing her innermost ruminations on love to transcend into universality.
7. DAVID HOCKNEY. MY PARENTS. 1977
Filled with light and colour, David Hockney’s My Parents is a reflection on the peculiar dynamics of family that we come to love by virtue of belonging to. His mother looks affectionately at him, while his father seems to be oblivious to the occasion as he remains engrossed in his book. Mundane yet familiar, this is the kind of scene we indulge in when we feel the dread of time catching up to us and yearn for a return to the comforts of home.
8. CONSTANTIN BRÂNCUȘI. THE KISS. 1916
Recognised as one of the most accomplished abstract sculptures of the 20th century, Constantin Brâncuși’s The Kiss depicts two figures merged into a single form. Carved out of limestone, their two eyes come together to create one perfectly shaped eye, their hairlines arch in harmonious symmetry and their arms encircle each other amorously. As such, Brâncuși immortalises our profound inclination to give ourselves over to those we love, to become whole with them.
9. SOPHIE CALLE. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. 2007
An operatic display of heartache, Take Care of Yourself is Sophie Calle’s way of coming to terms with being broken up with via email. Emulating her former lover’s delivery, she opts for an equally clinical response- collecting 107 womens’ interpretations of the email, varying from video performances to textual analysis, arranging them methodically like a wall of evidence. Refusing to draw any conclusive results from the evidence, Calle highlights instead the tenacity with which women endure such cruel ruptures and by extension take care of themselves.
10. IAIN FORSYTH AND JANE POLLARD. ANYONE ELSE ISN’T YOU. 2005
Anyone Else Isn’t You is a 30-minute black and white video during which 14 people discuss the importance of music in their romantic relationships. The video cuts between the different narratives such that they become interspersed, each song mentioned functioning as a relic of a remembered person or sliver of time. In doing so, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard celebrate the nostalgic notion of carefully constructing a mixtape as a means of expressing our love for another.
Watch a segment of Anyone Else Isn’t You here.
11. MASAHISA FUKASE. FROM WINDOW. 1974
Masahisa Fukase’s series From Window is a radiant set of snapshots of his wife, taken every morning as she left their apartment. Tender and playful, she appears here in that exalting, pre-possessing light only a lover can procure. Despite Fukase’s otherwise rather somber body of work, these images offer an idyllic vision of a time once made wonderful by companionship.
12. HENRY MOORE. MOTHER AND CHILD. 1932
Harnessing the strength and fortitude of maternal love, Henry Moore’s 1932 sculpture beholds a deeply affecting tension. Although already safely cocooned, the timid child latches onto the mother’s chest, as she peers attentively over her large shoulder on the look-out for any potential dangers. An ode to the instinctual bonds forged in motherhood- the determination to love and protect at all costs.
13. ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE. EMBRACE. 1982
Embrace is a prodigious example of Robert Mapplethorpe’s ability to capture human sensuality. The image features two men in an impassioned hug, their bare chests compressed together, heads buried solidly in each other’s necks. Identical apart from their skin tone, Mapplethorpe utilises the binaries of black and white to effuse the image with an inexplicable warmth and intensity. It continues to resonate today as a striking depiction of both queer and interracial connection.
14. NOBUYOSHI ARAKI. UNTITLED FROM “SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY – THE COMPLETE CONTACT SHEETS”. 1971: 2015
While Nobuyoshi Araki is most well-known for his erotic photography of Japan’s underground sex scene, it is his first photobook Sentimental Journey that contains his most vulnerable work. Charting his relationship with his wife, the images drift seamlessly between her posing in cheap hotel rooms, to her gazing up at him during sex, to her eventually lying in a coffin. As startlingly raw as these images may be, they teach us of the inherent temporality of love- that there will always be a before, now, and after. No single phase worthier than the other of commemoration.
When we think of love, we tend to envision it in its quintessentially romantic form- passionate, ecstatic and all-consuming. In reality, love is so much more complicated than that. From the unconditional love we reserve for family to the intrinsic love we cultivate for self, there are countless avenues and means by which we can experience love. This Valentine’s day, we explore 14 artworks that make our hearts skip a beat.
1. NAN GOLDIN. RISE AND MONTY KISSING, NEW YORK CITY. 1980.
Rise and Monty Kissing, New York City is one of 700 moments captured in Nan Goldin’s iconic photo narrative The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. It is, as she puts it, the diary she lets people read. Documenting the yearning for intimacy between friends and lovers, the images are irresistibly candid, mirroring the mercurial yet often rapturous nature of such relationships. Here, the couple grasp at each other as their open mouths envelop- their palpable desperation implying some irrational fear that they will extinguish if they let go or come up for breath. Such is the urgency of love.
2. MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ AND ULAY. REST ENERGY. 1980.
In performance art piece Rest Energy, artists and then-lovers Marina Abramović and Ulay face each other as they draw a bow and arrow, each leaning back while holding one side. Microphones pick up their accelerating pulses and erratic breathing as the arrowhead is directed fatally at Abramović’s heart. What seems initially as an anxiety-inducing scenario gradually eases into a peaceful portrait of trust, a journey so natural to those in love and prepared to stake themselves upon the extremism of that emotion.
Watch Rest Energy in motion here.
3. MARC CHAGALL. THE BIRTHDAY. 1887
Marc Chagall once said that “love and fantasy go hand in hand”. The Birthday is his purest manifestation of this sentiment. Painted just a few weeks before his marriage, it is a tableau of loving bliss and devotion. The two bodies defy all logic; the man floats whimsically above the woman, his body twisting magnificently backwards and around to reach her lips, her feet lifting off the crimson carpet as she stares wide-eyed up at him. In the heady throes of love, Chagall assures us that nothing needs to make sense.
4. WOLFGANG TILLMANS. I DON’T WANT TO GET OVER YOU. 2000
As though taken from a moving car, I don’t want to get over you evokes the euphoric essence of rolling mountains, vast grassy plains and endless skies. By deliberately tinting the landscape blue and permeating the surface with dark streaks of ink, Wolfgang Tillmans subverts its primordial beauty and plunges us instead into a state of melancholy, reminiscent of the romantic anguish we feel when we move from union to separation. Yet, as the beacon of light emerges from behind the clouds, we are reminded of our capacity to heal and hope again.
5. FELIX GONZALEZ-TORRES. UNTITLED (PERFECT LOVERS). 1991
Untitled (Perfect Lovers) consists of two battery-powered clocks originally set to the same time, which inevitably fall out of sync before being reset. In grappling with his grief over the passing of his HIV-positive partner, Gonzalez-Torres wrote to him: “Don’t be afraid of the clocks, they are our time, the time has been so generous to us…we are a product of the time, therefore we give back credit where it is due: time. We are synchronized, now forever. I love you.”. In this way, the clocks serve as a moving metaphor for the unpredictable passing of time, as well as the resilient faculty that is love.
6. TRACEY EMIN. I CRIED BECAUSE I LOVE YOU. 2015
One of Tracey Emin’s later neon works I Cried Because I Love You reveals the complex interiority of what it means to love and lose over and over. The act of crying, so innate that we are born in tears, serves as a parallel to the natural yet unexpected processes of falling in and out of love. Emin’s use of her own handwriting lends a particular poignancy, allowing her innermost ruminations on love to transcend into universality.
7. DAVID HOCKNEY. MY PARENTS. 1977
Filled with light and colour, David Hockney’s My Parents is a reflection on the peculiar dynamics of family that we come to love by virtue of belonging to. His mother looks affectionately at him, while his father seems to be oblivious to the occasion as he remains engrossed in his book. Mundane yet familiar, this is the kind of scene we indulge in when we feel the dread of time catching up to us and yearn for a return to the comforts of home.
8. CONSTANTIN BRÂNCUȘI. THE KISS. 1916
Recognised as one of the most accomplished abstract sculptures of the 20th century, Constantin Brâncuși’s The Kiss depicts two figures merged into a single form. Carved out of limestone, their two eyes come together to create one perfectly shaped eye, their hairlines arch in harmonious symmetry and their arms encircle each other amorously. As such, Brâncuși immortalises our profound inclination to give ourselves over to those we love, to become whole with them.
9. SOPHIE CALLE. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. 2007
An operatic display of heartache, Take Care of Yourself is Sophie Calle’s way of coming to terms with being broken up with via email. Emulating her former lover’s delivery, she opts for an equally clinical response- collecting 107 womens’ interpretations of the email, varying from video performances to textual analysis, arranging them methodically like a wall of evidence. Refusing to draw any conclusive results from the evidence, Calle highlights instead the tenacity with which women endure such cruel ruptures and by extension take care of themselves.
10. IAIN FORSYTH AND JANE POLLARD. ANYONE ELSE ISN’T YOU. 2005
Anyone Else Isn’t You is a 30-minute black and white video during which 14 people discuss the importance of music in their romantic relationships. The video cuts between the different narratives such that they become interspersed, each song mentioned functioning as a relic of a remembered person or sliver of time. In doing so, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard celebrate the nostalgic notion of carefully constructing a mixtape as a means of expressing our love for another.
Watch a segment of Anyone Else Isn’t You here.
11. MASAHISA FUKASE. FROM WINDOW. 1974
Masahisa Fukase’s series From Window is a radiant set of snapshots of his wife, taken every morning as she left their apartment. Tender and playful, she appears here in that exalting, pre-possessing light only a lover can procure. Despite Fukase’s otherwise rather somber body of work, these images offer an idyllic vision of a time once made wonderful by companionship.
12. HENRY MOORE. MOTHER AND CHILD. 1932
Harnessing the strength and fortitude of maternal love, Henry Moore’s 1932 sculpture beholds a deeply affecting tension. Although already safely cocooned, the timid child latches onto the mother’s chest, as she peers attentively over her large shoulder on the look-out for any potential dangers. An ode to the instinctual bonds forged in motherhood- the determination to love and protect at all costs.
13. ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE. EMBRACE. 1982
Embrace is a prodigious example of Robert Mapplethorpe’s ability to capture human sensuality. The image features two men in an impassioned hug, their bare chests compressed together, heads buried solidly in each other’s necks. Identical apart from their skin tone, Mapplethorpe utilises the binaries of black and white to effuse the image with an inexplicable warmth and intensity. It continues to resonate today as a striking depiction of both queer and interracial connection.
14. NOBUYOSHI ARAKI. UNTITLED FROM “SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY – THE COMPLETE CONTACT SHEETS”. 1971: 2015
While Nobuyoshi Araki is most well-known for his erotic photography of Japan’s underground sex scene, it is his first photobook Sentimental Journey that contains his most vulnerable work. Charting his relationship with his wife, the images drift seamlessly between her posing in cheap hotel rooms, to her gazing up at him during sex, to her eventually lying in a coffin. As startlingly raw as these images may be, they teach us of the inherent temporality of love- that there will always be a before, now, and after. No single phase worthier than the other of commemoration.
When we think of love, we tend to envision it in its quintessentially romantic form- passionate, ecstatic and all-consuming. In reality, love is so much more complicated than that. From the unconditional love we reserve for family to the intrinsic love we cultivate for self, there are countless avenues and means by which we can experience love. This Valentine’s day, we explore 14 artworks that make our hearts skip a beat.
1. NAN GOLDIN. RISE AND MONTY KISSING, NEW YORK CITY. 1980.
Rise and Monty Kissing, New York City is one of 700 moments captured in Nan Goldin’s iconic photo narrative The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. It is, as she puts it, the diary she lets people read. Documenting the yearning for intimacy between friends and lovers, the images are irresistibly candid, mirroring the mercurial yet often rapturous nature of such relationships. Here, the couple grasp at each other as their open mouths envelop- their palpable desperation implying some irrational fear that they will extinguish if they let go or come up for breath. Such is the urgency of love.
2. MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ AND ULAY. REST ENERGY. 1980.
In performance art piece Rest Energy, artists and then-lovers Marina Abramović and Ulay face each other as they draw a bow and arrow, each leaning back while holding one side. Microphones pick up their accelerating pulses and erratic breathing as the arrowhead is directed fatally at Abramović’s heart. What seems initially as an anxiety-inducing scenario gradually eases into a peaceful portrait of trust, a journey so natural to those in love and prepared to stake themselves upon the extremism of that emotion.
Watch Rest Energy in motion here.
3. MARC CHAGALL. THE BIRTHDAY. 1887
Marc Chagall once said that “love and fantasy go hand in hand”. The Birthday is his purest manifestation of this sentiment. Painted just a few weeks before his marriage, it is a tableau of loving bliss and devotion. The two bodies defy all logic; the man floats whimsically above the woman, his body twisting magnificently backwards and around to reach her lips, her feet lifting off the crimson carpet as she stares wide-eyed up at him. In the heady throes of love, Chagall assures us that nothing needs to make sense.
4. WOLFGANG TILLMANS. I DON’T WANT TO GET OVER YOU. 2000
As though taken from a moving car, I don’t want to get over you evokes the euphoric essence of rolling mountains, vast grassy plains and endless skies. By deliberately tinting the landscape blue and permeating the surface with dark streaks of ink, Wolfgang Tillmans subverts its primordial beauty and plunges us instead into a state of melancholy, reminiscent of the romantic anguish we feel when we move from union to separation. Yet, as the beacon of light emerges from behind the clouds, we are reminded of our capacity to heal and hope again.
5. FELIX GONZALEZ-TORRES. UNTITLED (PERFECT LOVERS). 1991
Untitled (Perfect Lovers) consists of two battery-powered clocks originally set to the same time, which inevitably fall out of sync before being reset. In grappling with his grief over the passing of his HIV-positive partner, Gonzalez-Torres wrote to him: “Don’t be afraid of the clocks, they are our time, the time has been so generous to us…we are a product of the time, therefore we give back credit where it is due: time. We are synchronized, now forever. I love you.”. In this way, the clocks serve as a moving metaphor for the unpredictable passing of time, as well as the resilient faculty that is love.
6. TRACEY EMIN. I CRIED BECAUSE I LOVE YOU. 2015
One of Tracey Emin’s later neon works I Cried Because I Love You reveals the complex interiority of what it means to love and lose over and over. The act of crying, so innate that we are born in tears, serves as a parallel to the natural yet unexpected processes of falling in and out of love. Emin’s use of her own handwriting lends a particular poignancy, allowing her innermost ruminations on love to transcend into universality.
7. DAVID HOCKNEY. MY PARENTS. 1977
Filled with light and colour, David Hockney’s My Parents is a reflection on the peculiar dynamics of family that we come to love by virtue of belonging to. His mother looks affectionately at him, while his father seems to be oblivious to the occasion as he remains engrossed in his book. Mundane yet familiar, this is the kind of scene we indulge in when we feel the dread of time catching up to us and yearn for a return to the comforts of home.
8. CONSTANTIN BRÂNCUȘI. THE KISS. 1916
Recognised as one of the most accomplished abstract sculptures of the 20th century, Constantin Brâncuși’s The Kiss depicts two figures merged into a single form. Carved out of limestone, their two eyes come together to create one perfectly shaped eye, their hairlines arch in harmonious symmetry and their arms encircle each other amorously. As such, Brâncuși immortalises our profound inclination to give ourselves over to those we love, to become whole with them.
9. SOPHIE CALLE. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. 2007
An operatic display of heartache, Take Care of Yourself is Sophie Calle’s way of coming to terms with being broken up with via email. Emulating her former lover’s delivery, she opts for an equally clinical response- collecting 107 womens’ interpretations of the email, varying from video performances to textual analysis, arranging them methodically like a wall of evidence. Refusing to draw any conclusive results from the evidence, Calle highlights instead the tenacity with which women endure such cruel ruptures and by extension take care of themselves.
10. IAIN FORSYTH AND JANE POLLARD. ANYONE ELSE ISN’T YOU. 2005
Anyone Else Isn’t You is a 30-minute black and white video during which 14 people discuss the importance of music in their romantic relationships. The video cuts between the different narratives such that they become interspersed, each song mentioned functioning as a relic of a remembered person or sliver of time. In doing so, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard celebrate the nostalgic notion of carefully constructing a mixtape as a means of expressing our love for another.
Watch a segment of Anyone Else Isn’t You here.
11. MASAHISA FUKASE. FROM WINDOW. 1974
Masahisa Fukase’s series From Window is a radiant set of snapshots of his wife, taken every morning as she left their apartment. Tender and playful, she appears here in that exalting, pre-possessing light only a lover can procure. Despite Fukase’s otherwise rather somber body of work, these images offer an idyllic vision of a time once made wonderful by companionship.
12. HENRY MOORE. MOTHER AND CHILD. 1932
Harnessing the strength and fortitude of maternal love, Henry Moore’s 1932 sculpture beholds a deeply affecting tension. Although already safely cocooned, the timid child latches onto the mother’s chest, as she peers attentively over her large shoulder on the look-out for any potential dangers. An ode to the instinctual bonds forged in motherhood- the determination to love and protect at all costs.
13. ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE. EMBRACE. 1982
Embrace is a prodigious example of Robert Mapplethorpe’s ability to capture human sensuality. The image features two men in an impassioned hug, their bare chests compressed together, heads buried solidly in each other’s necks. Identical apart from their skin tone, Mapplethorpe utilises the binaries of black and white to effuse the image with an inexplicable warmth and intensity. It continues to resonate today as a striking depiction of both queer and interracial connection.
14. NOBUYOSHI ARAKI. UNTITLED FROM “SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY – THE COMPLETE CONTACT SHEETS”. 1971: 2015
While Nobuyoshi Araki is most well-known for his erotic photography of Japan’s underground sex scene, it is his first photobook Sentimental Journey that contains his most vulnerable work. Charting his relationship with his wife, the images drift seamlessly between her posing in cheap hotel rooms, to her gazing up at him during sex, to her eventually lying in a coffin. As startlingly raw as these images may be, they teach us of the inherent temporality of love- that there will always be a before, now, and after. No single phase worthier than the other of commemoration.
When we think of love, we tend to envision it in its quintessentially romantic form- passionate, ecstatic and all-consuming. In reality, love is so much more complicated than that. From the unconditional love we reserve for family to the intrinsic love we cultivate for self, there are countless avenues and means by which we can experience love. This Valentine’s day, we explore 14 artworks that make our hearts skip a beat.
1. NAN GOLDIN. RISE AND MONTY KISSING, NEW YORK CITY. 1980.
Rise and Monty Kissing, New York City is one of 700 moments captured in Nan Goldin’s iconic photo narrative The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. It is, as she puts it, the diary she lets people read. Documenting the yearning for intimacy between friends and lovers, the images are irresistibly candid, mirroring the mercurial yet often rapturous nature of such relationships. Here, the couple grasp at each other as their open mouths envelop- their palpable desperation implying some irrational fear that they will extinguish if they let go or come up for breath. Such is the urgency of love.
2. MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ AND ULAY. REST ENERGY. 1980.
In performance art piece Rest Energy, artists and then-lovers Marina Abramović and Ulay face each other as they draw a bow and arrow, each leaning back while holding one side. Microphones pick up their accelerating pulses and erratic breathing as the arrowhead is directed fatally at Abramović’s heart. What seems initially as an anxiety-inducing scenario gradually eases into a peaceful portrait of trust, a journey so natural to those in love and prepared to stake themselves upon the extremism of that emotion.
Watch Rest Energy in motion here.
3. MARC CHAGALL. THE BIRTHDAY. 1887
Marc Chagall once said that “love and fantasy go hand in hand”. The Birthday is his purest manifestation of this sentiment. Painted just a few weeks before his marriage, it is a tableau of loving bliss and devotion. The two bodies defy all logic; the man floats whimsically above the woman, his body twisting magnificently backwards and around to reach her lips, her feet lifting off the crimson carpet as she stares wide-eyed up at him. In the heady throes of love, Chagall assures us that nothing needs to make sense.
4. WOLFGANG TILLMANS. I DON’T WANT TO GET OVER YOU. 2000
As though taken from a moving car, I don’t want to get over you evokes the euphoric essence of rolling mountains, vast grassy plains and endless skies. By deliberately tinting the landscape blue and permeating the surface with dark streaks of ink, Wolfgang Tillmans subverts its primordial beauty and plunges us instead into a state of melancholy, reminiscent of the romantic anguish we feel when we move from union to separation. Yet, as the beacon of light emerges from behind the clouds, we are reminded of our capacity to heal and hope again.
5. FELIX GONZALEZ-TORRES. UNTITLED (PERFECT LOVERS). 1991
Untitled (Perfect Lovers) consists of two battery-powered clocks originally set to the same time, which inevitably fall out of sync before being reset. In grappling with his grief over the passing of his HIV-positive partner, Gonzalez-Torres wrote to him: “Don’t be afraid of the clocks, they are our time, the time has been so generous to us…we are a product of the time, therefore we give back credit where it is due: time. We are synchronized, now forever. I love you.”. In this way, the clocks serve as a moving metaphor for the unpredictable passing of time, as well as the resilient faculty that is love.
6. TRACEY EMIN. I CRIED BECAUSE I LOVE YOU. 2015
One of Tracey Emin’s later neon works I Cried Because I Love You reveals the complex interiority of what it means to love and lose over and over. The act of crying, so innate that we are born in tears, serves as a parallel to the natural yet unexpected processes of falling in and out of love. Emin’s use of her own handwriting lends a particular poignancy, allowing her innermost ruminations on love to transcend into universality.
7. DAVID HOCKNEY. MY PARENTS. 1977
Filled with light and colour, David Hockney’s My Parents is a reflection on the peculiar dynamics of family that we come to love by virtue of belonging to. His mother looks affectionately at him, while his father seems to be oblivious to the occasion as he remains engrossed in his book. Mundane yet familiar, this is the kind of scene we indulge in when we feel the dread of time catching up to us and yearn for a return to the comforts of home.
8. CONSTANTIN BRÂNCUȘI. THE KISS. 1916
Recognised as one of the most accomplished abstract sculptures of the 20th century, Constantin Brâncuși’s The Kiss depicts two figures merged into a single form. Carved out of limestone, their two eyes come together to create one perfectly shaped eye, their hairlines arch in harmonious symmetry and their arms encircle each other amorously. As such, Brâncuși immortalises our profound inclination to give ourselves over to those we love, to become whole with them.
9. SOPHIE CALLE. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. 2007
An operatic display of heartache, Take Care of Yourself is Sophie Calle’s way of coming to terms with being broken up with via email. Emulating her former lover’s delivery, she opts for an equally clinical response- collecting 107 womens’ interpretations of the email, varying from video performances to textual analysis, arranging them methodically like a wall of evidence. Refusing to draw any conclusive results from the evidence, Calle highlights instead the tenacity with which women endure such cruel ruptures and by extension take care of themselves.
10. IAIN FORSYTH AND JANE POLLARD. ANYONE ELSE ISN’T YOU. 2005
Anyone Else Isn’t You is a 30-minute black and white video during which 14 people discuss the importance of music in their romantic relationships. The video cuts between the different narratives such that they become interspersed, each song mentioned functioning as a relic of a remembered person or sliver of time. In doing so, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard celebrate the nostalgic notion of carefully constructing a mixtape as a means of expressing our love for another.
Watch a segment of Anyone Else Isn’t You here.
11. MASAHISA FUKASE. FROM WINDOW. 1974
Masahisa Fukase’s series From Window is a radiant set of snapshots of his wife, taken every morning as she left their apartment. Tender and playful, she appears here in that exalting, pre-possessing light only a lover can procure. Despite Fukase’s otherwise rather somber body of work, these images offer an idyllic vision of a time once made wonderful by companionship.
12. HENRY MOORE. MOTHER AND CHILD. 1932
Harnessing the strength and fortitude of maternal love, Henry Moore’s 1932 sculpture beholds a deeply affecting tension. Although already safely cocooned, the timid child latches onto the mother’s chest, as she peers attentively over her large shoulder on the look-out for any potential dangers. An ode to the instinctual bonds forged in motherhood- the determination to love and protect at all costs.
13. ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE. EMBRACE. 1982
Embrace is a prodigious example of Robert Mapplethorpe’s ability to capture human sensuality. The image features two men in an impassioned hug, their bare chests compressed together, heads buried solidly in each other’s necks. Identical apart from their skin tone, Mapplethorpe utilises the binaries of black and white to effuse the image with an inexplicable warmth and intensity. It continues to resonate today as a striking depiction of both queer and interracial connection.
14. NOBUYOSHI ARAKI. UNTITLED FROM “SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY – THE COMPLETE CONTACT SHEETS”. 1971: 2015
While Nobuyoshi Araki is most well-known for his erotic photography of Japan’s underground sex scene, it is his first photobook Sentimental Journey that contains his most vulnerable work. Charting his relationship with his wife, the images drift seamlessly between her posing in cheap hotel rooms, to her gazing up at him during sex, to her eventually lying in a coffin. As startlingly raw as these images may be, they teach us of the inherent temporality of love- that there will always be a before, now, and after. No single phase worthier than the other of commemoration.
When we think of love, we tend to envision it in its quintessentially romantic form- passionate, ecstatic and all-consuming. In reality, love is so much more complicated than that. From the unconditional love we reserve for family to the intrinsic love we cultivate for self, there are countless avenues and means by which we can experience love. This Valentine’s day, we explore 14 artworks that make our hearts skip a beat.
1. NAN GOLDIN. RISE AND MONTY KISSING, NEW YORK CITY. 1980.
Rise and Monty Kissing, New York City is one of 700 moments captured in Nan Goldin’s iconic photo narrative The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. It is, as she puts it, the diary she lets people read. Documenting the yearning for intimacy between friends and lovers, the images are irresistibly candid, mirroring the mercurial yet often rapturous nature of such relationships. Here, the couple grasp at each other as their open mouths envelop- their palpable desperation implying some irrational fear that they will extinguish if they let go or come up for breath. Such is the urgency of love.
2. MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ AND ULAY. REST ENERGY. 1980.
In performance art piece Rest Energy, artists and then-lovers Marina Abramović and Ulay face each other as they draw a bow and arrow, each leaning back while holding one side. Microphones pick up their accelerating pulses and erratic breathing as the arrowhead is directed fatally at Abramović’s heart. What seems initially as an anxiety-inducing scenario gradually eases into a peaceful portrait of trust, a journey so natural to those in love and prepared to stake themselves upon the extremism of that emotion.
Watch Rest Energy in motion here.
3. MARC CHAGALL. THE BIRTHDAY. 1887
Marc Chagall once said that “love and fantasy go hand in hand”. The Birthday is his purest manifestation of this sentiment. Painted just a few weeks before his marriage, it is a tableau of loving bliss and devotion. The two bodies defy all logic; the man floats whimsically above the woman, his body twisting magnificently backwards and around to reach her lips, her feet lifting off the crimson carpet as she stares wide-eyed up at him. In the heady throes of love, Chagall assures us that nothing needs to make sense.
4. WOLFGANG TILLMANS. I DON’T WANT TO GET OVER YOU. 2000
As though taken from a moving car, I don’t want to get over you evokes the euphoric essence of rolling mountains, vast grassy plains and endless skies. By deliberately tinting the landscape blue and permeating the surface with dark streaks of ink, Wolfgang Tillmans subverts its primordial beauty and plunges us instead into a state of melancholy, reminiscent of the romantic anguish we feel when we move from union to separation. Yet, as the beacon of light emerges from behind the clouds, we are reminded of our capacity to heal and hope again.
5. FELIX GONZALEZ-TORRES. UNTITLED (PERFECT LOVERS). 1991
Untitled (Perfect Lovers) consists of two battery-powered clocks originally set to the same time, which inevitably fall out of sync before being reset. In grappling with his grief over the passing of his HIV-positive partner, Gonzalez-Torres wrote to him: “Don’t be afraid of the clocks, they are our time, the time has been so generous to us…we are a product of the time, therefore we give back credit where it is due: time. We are synchronized, now forever. I love you.”. In this way, the clocks serve as a moving metaphor for the unpredictable passing of time, as well as the resilient faculty that is love.
6. TRACEY EMIN. I CRIED BECAUSE I LOVE YOU. 2015
One of Tracey Emin’s later neon works I Cried Because I Love You reveals the complex interiority of what it means to love and lose over and over. The act of crying, so innate that we are born in tears, serves as a parallel to the natural yet unexpected processes of falling in and out of love. Emin’s use of her own handwriting lends a particular poignancy, allowing her innermost ruminations on love to transcend into universality.
7. DAVID HOCKNEY. MY PARENTS. 1977
Filled with light and colour, David Hockney’s My Parents is a reflection on the peculiar dynamics of family that we come to love by virtue of belonging to. His mother looks affectionately at him, while his father seems to be oblivious to the occasion as he remains engrossed in his book. Mundane yet familiar, this is the kind of scene we indulge in when we feel the dread of time catching up to us and yearn for a return to the comforts of home.
8. CONSTANTIN BRÂNCUȘI. THE KISS. 1916
Recognised as one of the most accomplished abstract sculptures of the 20th century, Constantin Brâncuși’s The Kiss depicts two figures merged into a single form. Carved out of limestone, their two eyes come together to create one perfectly shaped eye, their hairlines arch in harmonious symmetry and their arms encircle each other amorously. As such, Brâncuși immortalises our profound inclination to give ourselves over to those we love, to become whole with them.
9. SOPHIE CALLE. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. 2007
An operatic display of heartache, Take Care of Yourself is Sophie Calle’s way of coming to terms with being broken up with via email. Emulating her former lover’s delivery, she opts for an equally clinical response- collecting 107 womens’ interpretations of the email, varying from video performances to textual analysis, arranging them methodically like a wall of evidence. Refusing to draw any conclusive results from the evidence, Calle highlights instead the tenacity with which women endure such cruel ruptures and by extension take care of themselves.
10. IAIN FORSYTH AND JANE POLLARD. ANYONE ELSE ISN’T YOU. 2005
Anyone Else Isn’t You is a 30-minute black and white video during which 14 people discuss the importance of music in their romantic relationships. The video cuts between the different narratives such that they become interspersed, each song mentioned functioning as a relic of a remembered person or sliver of time. In doing so, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard celebrate the nostalgic notion of carefully constructing a mixtape as a means of expressing our love for another.
Watch a segment of Anyone Else Isn’t You here.
11. MASAHISA FUKASE. FROM WINDOW. 1974
Masahisa Fukase’s series From Window is a radiant set of snapshots of his wife, taken every morning as she left their apartment. Tender and playful, she appears here in that exalting, pre-possessing light only a lover can procure. Despite Fukase’s otherwise rather somber body of work, these images offer an idyllic vision of a time once made wonderful by companionship.
12. HENRY MOORE. MOTHER AND CHILD. 1932
Harnessing the strength and fortitude of maternal love, Henry Moore’s 1932 sculpture beholds a deeply affecting tension. Although already safely cocooned, the timid child latches onto the mother’s chest, as she peers attentively over her large shoulder on the look-out for any potential dangers. An ode to the instinctual bonds forged in motherhood- the determination to love and protect at all costs.
13. ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE. EMBRACE. 1982
Embrace is a prodigious example of Robert Mapplethorpe’s ability to capture human sensuality. The image features two men in an impassioned hug, their bare chests compressed together, heads buried solidly in each other’s necks. Identical apart from their skin tone, Mapplethorpe utilises the binaries of black and white to effuse the image with an inexplicable warmth and intensity. It continues to resonate today as a striking depiction of both queer and interracial connection.
14. NOBUYOSHI ARAKI. UNTITLED FROM “SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY – THE COMPLETE CONTACT SHEETS”. 1971: 2015
While Nobuyoshi Araki is most well-known for his erotic photography of Japan’s underground sex scene, it is his first photobook Sentimental Journey that contains his most vulnerable work. Charting his relationship with his wife, the images drift seamlessly between her posing in cheap hotel rooms, to her gazing up at him during sex, to her eventually lying in a coffin. As startlingly raw as these images may be, they teach us of the inherent temporality of love- that there will always be a before, now, and after. No single phase worthier than the other of commemoration.
When we think of love, we tend to envision it in its quintessentially romantic form- passionate, ecstatic and all-consuming. In reality, love is so much more complicated than that. From the unconditional love we reserve for family to the intrinsic love we cultivate for self, there are countless avenues and means by which we can experience love. This Valentine’s day, we explore 14 artworks that make our hearts skip a beat.
1. NAN GOLDIN. RISE AND MONTY KISSING, NEW YORK CITY. 1980.
Rise and Monty Kissing, New York City is one of 700 moments captured in Nan Goldin’s iconic photo narrative The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. It is, as she puts it, the diary she lets people read. Documenting the yearning for intimacy between friends and lovers, the images are irresistibly candid, mirroring the mercurial yet often rapturous nature of such relationships. Here, the couple grasp at each other as their open mouths envelop- their palpable desperation implying some irrational fear that they will extinguish if they let go or come up for breath. Such is the urgency of love.
2. MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ AND ULAY. REST ENERGY. 1980.
In performance art piece Rest Energy, artists and then-lovers Marina Abramović and Ulay face each other as they draw a bow and arrow, each leaning back while holding one side. Microphones pick up their accelerating pulses and erratic breathing as the arrowhead is directed fatally at Abramović’s heart. What seems initially as an anxiety-inducing scenario gradually eases into a peaceful portrait of trust, a journey so natural to those in love and prepared to stake themselves upon the extremism of that emotion.
Watch Rest Energy in motion here.
3. MARC CHAGALL. THE BIRTHDAY. 1887
Marc Chagall once said that “love and fantasy go hand in hand”. The Birthday is his purest manifestation of this sentiment. Painted just a few weeks before his marriage, it is a tableau of loving bliss and devotion. The two bodies defy all logic; the man floats whimsically above the woman, his body twisting magnificently backwards and around to reach her lips, her feet lifting off the crimson carpet as she stares wide-eyed up at him. In the heady throes of love, Chagall assures us that nothing needs to make sense.
4. WOLFGANG TILLMANS. I DON’T WANT TO GET OVER YOU. 2000
As though taken from a moving car, I don’t want to get over you evokes the euphoric essence of rolling mountains, vast grassy plains and endless skies. By deliberately tinting the landscape blue and permeating the surface with dark streaks of ink, Wolfgang Tillmans subverts its primordial beauty and plunges us instead into a state of melancholy, reminiscent of the romantic anguish we feel when we move from union to separation. Yet, as the beacon of light emerges from behind the clouds, we are reminded of our capacity to heal and hope again.
5. FELIX GONZALEZ-TORRES. UNTITLED (PERFECT LOVERS). 1991
Untitled (Perfect Lovers) consists of two battery-powered clocks originally set to the same time, which inevitably fall out of sync before being reset. In grappling with his grief over the passing of his HIV-positive partner, Gonzalez-Torres wrote to him: “Don’t be afraid of the clocks, they are our time, the time has been so generous to us…we are a product of the time, therefore we give back credit where it is due: time. We are synchronized, now forever. I love you.”. In this way, the clocks serve as a moving metaphor for the unpredictable passing of time, as well as the resilient faculty that is love.
6. TRACEY EMIN. I CRIED BECAUSE I LOVE YOU. 2015
One of Tracey Emin’s later neon works I Cried Because I Love You reveals the complex interiority of what it means to love and lose over and over. The act of crying, so innate that we are born in tears, serves as a parallel to the natural yet unexpected processes of falling in and out of love. Emin’s use of her own handwriting lends a particular poignancy, allowing her innermost ruminations on love to transcend into universality.
7. DAVID HOCKNEY. MY PARENTS. 1977
Filled with light and colour, David Hockney’s My Parents is a reflection on the peculiar dynamics of family that we come to love by virtue of belonging to. His mother looks affectionately at him, while his father seems to be oblivious to the occasion as he remains engrossed in his book. Mundane yet familiar, this is the kind of scene we indulge in when we feel the dread of time catching up to us and yearn for a return to the comforts of home.
8. CONSTANTIN BRÂNCUȘI. THE KISS. 1916
Recognised as one of the most accomplished abstract sculptures of the 20th century, Constantin Brâncuși’s The Kiss depicts two figures merged into a single form. Carved out of limestone, their two eyes come together to create one perfectly shaped eye, their hairlines arch in harmonious symmetry and their arms encircle each other amorously. As such, Brâncuși immortalises our profound inclination to give ourselves over to those we love, to become whole with them.
9. SOPHIE CALLE. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. 2007
An operatic display of heartache, Take Care of Yourself is Sophie Calle’s way of coming to terms with being broken up with via email. Emulating her former lover’s delivery, she opts for an equally clinical response- collecting 107 womens’ interpretations of the email, varying from video performances to textual analysis, arranging them methodically like a wall of evidence. Refusing to draw any conclusive results from the evidence, Calle highlights instead the tenacity with which women endure such cruel ruptures and by extension take care of themselves.
10. IAIN FORSYTH AND JANE POLLARD. ANYONE ELSE ISN’T YOU. 2005
Anyone Else Isn’t You is a 30-minute black and white video during which 14 people discuss the importance of music in their romantic relationships. The video cuts between the different narratives such that they become interspersed, each song mentioned functioning as a relic of a remembered person or sliver of time. In doing so, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard celebrate the nostalgic notion of carefully constructing a mixtape as a means of expressing our love for another.
Watch a segment of Anyone Else Isn’t You here.
11. MASAHISA FUKASE. FROM WINDOW. 1974
Masahisa Fukase’s series From Window is a radiant set of snapshots of his wife, taken every morning as she left their apartment. Tender and playful, she appears here in that exalting, pre-possessing light only a lover can procure. Despite Fukase’s otherwise rather somber body of work, these images offer an idyllic vision of a time once made wonderful by companionship.
12. HENRY MOORE. MOTHER AND CHILD. 1932
Harnessing the strength and fortitude of maternal love, Henry Moore’s 1932 sculpture beholds a deeply affecting tension. Although already safely cocooned, the timid child latches onto the mother’s chest, as she peers attentively over her large shoulder on the look-out for any potential dangers. An ode to the instinctual bonds forged in motherhood- the determination to love and protect at all costs.
13. ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE. EMBRACE. 1982
Embrace is a prodigious example of Robert Mapplethorpe’s ability to capture human sensuality. The image features two men in an impassioned hug, their bare chests compressed together, heads buried solidly in each other’s necks. Identical apart from their skin tone, Mapplethorpe utilises the binaries of black and white to effuse the image with an inexplicable warmth and intensity. It continues to resonate today as a striking depiction of both queer and interracial connection.
14. NOBUYOSHI ARAKI. UNTITLED FROM “SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY – THE COMPLETE CONTACT SHEETS”. 1971: 2015
While Nobuyoshi Araki is most well-known for his erotic photography of Japan’s underground sex scene, it is his first photobook Sentimental Journey that contains his most vulnerable work. Charting his relationship with his wife, the images drift seamlessly between her posing in cheap hotel rooms, to her gazing up at him during sex, to her eventually lying in a coffin. As startlingly raw as these images may be, they teach us of the inherent temporality of love- that there will always be a before, now, and after. No single phase worthier than the other of commemoration.
When we think of love, we tend to envision it in its quintessentially romantic form- passionate, ecstatic and all-consuming. In reality, love is so much more complicated than that. From the unconditional love we reserve for family to the intrinsic love we cultivate for self, there are countless avenues and means by which we can experience love. This Valentine’s day, we explore 14 artworks that make our hearts skip a beat.
1. NAN GOLDIN. RISE AND MONTY KISSING, NEW YORK CITY. 1980.
Rise and Monty Kissing, New York City is one of 700 moments captured in Nan Goldin’s iconic photo narrative The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. It is, as she puts it, the diary she lets people read. Documenting the yearning for intimacy between friends and lovers, the images are irresistibly candid, mirroring the mercurial yet often rapturous nature of such relationships. Here, the couple grasp at each other as their open mouths envelop- their palpable desperation implying some irrational fear that they will extinguish if they let go or come up for breath. Such is the urgency of love.
2. MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ AND ULAY. REST ENERGY. 1980.
In performance art piece Rest Energy, artists and then-lovers Marina Abramović and Ulay face each other as they draw a bow and arrow, each leaning back while holding one side. Microphones pick up their accelerating pulses and erratic breathing as the arrowhead is directed fatally at Abramović’s heart. What seems initially as an anxiety-inducing scenario gradually eases into a peaceful portrait of trust, a journey so natural to those in love and prepared to stake themselves upon the extremism of that emotion.
Watch Rest Energy in motion here.
3. MARC CHAGALL. THE BIRTHDAY. 1887
Marc Chagall once said that “love and fantasy go hand in hand”. The Birthday is his purest manifestation of this sentiment. Painted just a few weeks before his marriage, it is a tableau of loving bliss and devotion. The two bodies defy all logic; the man floats whimsically above the woman, his body twisting magnificently backwards and around to reach her lips, her feet lifting off the crimson carpet as she stares wide-eyed up at him. In the heady throes of love, Chagall assures us that nothing needs to make sense.
4. WOLFGANG TILLMANS. I DON’T WANT TO GET OVER YOU. 2000
As though taken from a moving car, I don’t want to get over you evokes the euphoric essence of rolling mountains, vast grassy plains and endless skies. By deliberately tinting the landscape blue and permeating the surface with dark streaks of ink, Wolfgang Tillmans subverts its primordial beauty and plunges us instead into a state of melancholy, reminiscent of the romantic anguish we feel when we move from union to separation. Yet, as the beacon of light emerges from behind the clouds, we are reminded of our capacity to heal and hope again.
5. FELIX GONZALEZ-TORRES. UNTITLED (PERFECT LOVERS). 1991
Untitled (Perfect Lovers) consists of two battery-powered clocks originally set to the same time, which inevitably fall out of sync before being reset. In grappling with his grief over the passing of his HIV-positive partner, Gonzalez-Torres wrote to him: “Don’t be afraid of the clocks, they are our time, the time has been so generous to us…we are a product of the time, therefore we give back credit where it is due: time. We are synchronized, now forever. I love you.”. In this way, the clocks serve as a moving metaphor for the unpredictable passing of time, as well as the resilient faculty that is love.
6. TRACEY EMIN. I CRIED BECAUSE I LOVE YOU. 2015
One of Tracey Emin’s later neon works I Cried Because I Love You reveals the complex interiority of what it means to love and lose over and over. The act of crying, so innate that we are born in tears, serves as a parallel to the natural yet unexpected processes of falling in and out of love. Emin’s use of her own handwriting lends a particular poignancy, allowing her innermost ruminations on love to transcend into universality.
7. DAVID HOCKNEY. MY PARENTS. 1977
Filled with light and colour, David Hockney’s My Parents is a reflection on the peculiar dynamics of family that we come to love by virtue of belonging to. His mother looks affectionately at him, while his father seems to be oblivious to the occasion as he remains engrossed in his book. Mundane yet familiar, this is the kind of scene we indulge in when we feel the dread of time catching up to us and yearn for a return to the comforts of home.
8. CONSTANTIN BRÂNCUȘI. THE KISS. 1916
Recognised as one of the most accomplished abstract sculptures of the 20th century, Constantin Brâncuși’s The Kiss depicts two figures merged into a single form. Carved out of limestone, their two eyes come together to create one perfectly shaped eye, their hairlines arch in harmonious symmetry and their arms encircle each other amorously. As such, Brâncuși immortalises our profound inclination to give ourselves over to those we love, to become whole with them.
9. SOPHIE CALLE. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. 2007
An operatic display of heartache, Take Care of Yourself is Sophie Calle’s way of coming to terms with being broken up with via email. Emulating her former lover’s delivery, she opts for an equally clinical response- collecting 107 womens’ interpretations of the email, varying from video performances to textual analysis, arranging them methodically like a wall of evidence. Refusing to draw any conclusive results from the evidence, Calle highlights instead the tenacity with which women endure such cruel ruptures and by extension take care of themselves.
10. IAIN FORSYTH AND JANE POLLARD. ANYONE ELSE ISN’T YOU. 2005
Anyone Else Isn’t You is a 30-minute black and white video during which 14 people discuss the importance of music in their romantic relationships. The video cuts between the different narratives such that they become interspersed, each song mentioned functioning as a relic of a remembered person or sliver of time. In doing so, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard celebrate the nostalgic notion of carefully constructing a mixtape as a means of expressing our love for another.
Watch a segment of Anyone Else Isn’t You here.
11. MASAHISA FUKASE. FROM WINDOW. 1974
Masahisa Fukase’s series From Window is a radiant set of snapshots of his wife, taken every morning as she left their apartment. Tender and playful, she appears here in that exalting, pre-possessing light only a lover can procure. Despite Fukase’s otherwise rather somber body of work, these images offer an idyllic vision of a time once made wonderful by companionship.
12. HENRY MOORE. MOTHER AND CHILD. 1932
Harnessing the strength and fortitude of maternal love, Henry Moore’s 1932 sculpture beholds a deeply affecting tension. Although already safely cocooned, the timid child latches onto the mother’s chest, as she peers attentively over her large shoulder on the look-out for any potential dangers. An ode to the instinctual bonds forged in motherhood- the determination to love and protect at all costs.
13. ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE. EMBRACE. 1982
Embrace is a prodigious example of Robert Mapplethorpe’s ability to capture human sensuality. The image features two men in an impassioned hug, their bare chests compressed together, heads buried solidly in each other’s necks. Identical apart from their skin tone, Mapplethorpe utilises the binaries of black and white to effuse the image with an inexplicable warmth and intensity. It continues to resonate today as a striking depiction of both queer and interracial connection.
14. NOBUYOSHI ARAKI. UNTITLED FROM “SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY – THE COMPLETE CONTACT SHEETS”. 1971: 2015
While Nobuyoshi Araki is most well-known for his erotic photography of Japan’s underground sex scene, it is his first photobook Sentimental Journey that contains his most vulnerable work. Charting his relationship with his wife, the images drift seamlessly between her posing in cheap hotel rooms, to her gazing up at him during sex, to her eventually lying in a coffin. As startlingly raw as these images may be, they teach us of the inherent temporality of love- that there will always be a before, now, and after. No single phase worthier than the other of commemoration.
When we think of love, we tend to envision it in its quintessentially romantic form- passionate, ecstatic and all-consuming. In reality, love is so much more complicated than that. From the unconditional love we reserve for family to the intrinsic love we cultivate for self, there are countless avenues and means by which we can experience love. This Valentine’s day, we explore 14 artworks that make our hearts skip a beat.
1. NAN GOLDIN. RISE AND MONTY KISSING, NEW YORK CITY. 1980.
Rise and Monty Kissing, New York City is one of 700 moments captured in Nan Goldin’s iconic photo narrative The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. It is, as she puts it, the diary she lets people read. Documenting the yearning for intimacy between friends and lovers, the images are irresistibly candid, mirroring the mercurial yet often rapturous nature of such relationships. Here, the couple grasp at each other as their open mouths envelop- their palpable desperation implying some irrational fear that they will extinguish if they let go or come up for breath. Such is the urgency of love.
2. MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ AND ULAY. REST ENERGY. 1980.
In performance art piece Rest Energy, artists and then-lovers Marina Abramović and Ulay face each other as they draw a bow and arrow, each leaning back while holding one side. Microphones pick up their accelerating pulses and erratic breathing as the arrowhead is directed fatally at Abramović’s heart. What seems initially as an anxiety-inducing scenario gradually eases into a peaceful portrait of trust, a journey so natural to those in love and prepared to stake themselves upon the extremism of that emotion.
Watch Rest Energy in motion here.
3. MARC CHAGALL. THE BIRTHDAY. 1887
Marc Chagall once said that “love and fantasy go hand in hand”. The Birthday is his purest manifestation of this sentiment. Painted just a few weeks before his marriage, it is a tableau of loving bliss and devotion. The two bodies defy all logic; the man floats whimsically above the woman, his body twisting magnificently backwards and around to reach her lips, her feet lifting off the crimson carpet as she stares wide-eyed up at him. In the heady throes of love, Chagall assures us that nothing needs to make sense.
4. WOLFGANG TILLMANS. I DON’T WANT TO GET OVER YOU. 2000
As though taken from a moving car, I don’t want to get over you evokes the euphoric essence of rolling mountains, vast grassy plains and endless skies. By deliberately tinting the landscape blue and permeating the surface with dark streaks of ink, Wolfgang Tillmans subverts its primordial beauty and plunges us instead into a state of melancholy, reminiscent of the romantic anguish we feel when we move from union to separation. Yet, as the beacon of light emerges from behind the clouds, we are reminded of our capacity to heal and hope again.
5. FELIX GONZALEZ-TORRES. UNTITLED (PERFECT LOVERS). 1991
Untitled (Perfect Lovers) consists of two battery-powered clocks originally set to the same time, which inevitably fall out of sync before being reset. In grappling with his grief over the passing of his HIV-positive partner, Gonzalez-Torres wrote to him: “Don’t be afraid of the clocks, they are our time, the time has been so generous to us…we are a product of the time, therefore we give back credit where it is due: time. We are synchronized, now forever. I love you.”. In this way, the clocks serve as a moving metaphor for the unpredictable passing of time, as well as the resilient faculty that is love.
6. TRACEY EMIN. I CRIED BECAUSE I LOVE YOU. 2015
One of Tracey Emin’s later neon works I Cried Because I Love You reveals the complex interiority of what it means to love and lose over and over. The act of crying, so innate that we are born in tears, serves as a parallel to the natural yet unexpected processes of falling in and out of love. Emin’s use of her own handwriting lends a particular poignancy, allowing her innermost ruminations on love to transcend into universality.
7. DAVID HOCKNEY. MY PARENTS. 1977
Filled with light and colour, David Hockney’s My Parents is a reflection on the peculiar dynamics of family that we come to love by virtue of belonging to. His mother looks affectionately at him, while his father seems to be oblivious to the occasion as he remains engrossed in his book. Mundane yet familiar, this is the kind of scene we indulge in when we feel the dread of time catching up to us and yearn for a return to the comforts of home.
8. CONSTANTIN BRÂNCUȘI. THE KISS. 1916
Recognised as one of the most accomplished abstract sculptures of the 20th century, Constantin Brâncuși’s The Kiss depicts two figures merged into a single form. Carved out of limestone, their two eyes come together to create one perfectly shaped eye, their hairlines arch in harmonious symmetry and their arms encircle each other amorously. As such, Brâncuși immortalises our profound inclination to give ourselves over to those we love, to become whole with them.
9. SOPHIE CALLE. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. 2007
An operatic display of heartache, Take Care of Yourself is Sophie Calle’s way of coming to terms with being broken up with via email. Emulating her former lover’s delivery, she opts for an equally clinical response- collecting 107 womens’ interpretations of the email, varying from video performances to textual analysis, arranging them methodically like a wall of evidence. Refusing to draw any conclusive results from the evidence, Calle highlights instead the tenacity with which women endure such cruel ruptures and by extension take care of themselves.
10. IAIN FORSYTH AND JANE POLLARD. ANYONE ELSE ISN’T YOU. 2005
Anyone Else Isn’t You is a 30-minute black and white video during which 14 people discuss the importance of music in their romantic relationships. The video cuts between the different narratives such that they become interspersed, each song mentioned functioning as a relic of a remembered person or sliver of time. In doing so, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard celebrate the nostalgic notion of carefully constructing a mixtape as a means of expressing our love for another.
Watch a segment of Anyone Else Isn’t You here.
11. MASAHISA FUKASE. FROM WINDOW. 1974
Masahisa Fukase’s series From Window is a radiant set of snapshots of his wife, taken every morning as she left their apartment. Tender and playful, she appears here in that exalting, pre-possessing light only a lover can procure. Despite Fukase’s otherwise rather somber body of work, these images offer an idyllic vision of a time once made wonderful by companionship.
12. HENRY MOORE. MOTHER AND CHILD. 1932
Harnessing the strength and fortitude of maternal love, Henry Moore’s 1932 sculpture beholds a deeply affecting tension. Although already safely cocooned, the timid child latches onto the mother’s chest, as she peers attentively over her large shoulder on the look-out for any potential dangers. An ode to the instinctual bonds forged in motherhood- the determination to love and protect at all costs.
13. ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE. EMBRACE. 1982
Embrace is a prodigious example of Robert Mapplethorpe’s ability to capture human sensuality. The image features two men in an impassioned hug, their bare chests compressed together, heads buried solidly in each other’s necks. Identical apart from their skin tone, Mapplethorpe utilises the binaries of black and white to effuse the image with an inexplicable warmth and intensity. It continues to resonate today as a striking depiction of both queer and interracial connection.
14. NOBUYOSHI ARAKI. UNTITLED FROM “SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY – THE COMPLETE CONTACT SHEETS”. 1971: 2015
While Nobuyoshi Araki is most well-known for his erotic photography of Japan’s underground sex scene, it is his first photobook Sentimental Journey that contains his most vulnerable work. Charting his relationship with his wife, the images drift seamlessly between her posing in cheap hotel rooms, to her gazing up at him during sex, to her eventually lying in a coffin. As startlingly raw as these images may be, they teach us of the inherent temporality of love- that there will always be a before, now, and after. No single phase worthier than the other of commemoration.
When we think of love, we tend to envision it in its quintessentially romantic form- passionate, ecstatic and all-consuming. In reality, love is so much more complicated than that. From the unconditional love we reserve for family to the intrinsic love we cultivate for self, there are countless avenues and means by which we can experience love. This Valentine’s day, we explore 14 artworks that make our hearts skip a beat.
1. NAN GOLDIN. RISE AND MONTY KISSING, NEW YORK CITY. 1980.
Rise and Monty Kissing, New York City is one of 700 moments captured in Nan Goldin’s iconic photo narrative The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. It is, as she puts it, the diary she lets people read. Documenting the yearning for intimacy between friends and lovers, the images are irresistibly candid, mirroring the mercurial yet often rapturous nature of such relationships. Here, the couple grasp at each other as their open mouths envelop- their palpable desperation implying some irrational fear that they will extinguish if they let go or come up for breath. Such is the urgency of love.
2. MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ AND ULAY. REST ENERGY. 1980.
In performance art piece Rest Energy, artists and then-lovers Marina Abramović and Ulay face each other as they draw a bow and arrow, each leaning back while holding one side. Microphones pick up their accelerating pulses and erratic breathing as the arrowhead is directed fatally at Abramović’s heart. What seems initially as an anxiety-inducing scenario gradually eases into a peaceful portrait of trust, a journey so natural to those in love and prepared to stake themselves upon the extremism of that emotion.
Watch Rest Energy in motion here.
3. MARC CHAGALL. THE BIRTHDAY. 1887
Marc Chagall once said that “love and fantasy go hand in hand”. The Birthday is his purest manifestation of this sentiment. Painted just a few weeks before his marriage, it is a tableau of loving bliss and devotion. The two bodies defy all logic; the man floats whimsically above the woman, his body twisting magnificently backwards and around to reach her lips, her feet lifting off the crimson carpet as she stares wide-eyed up at him. In the heady throes of love, Chagall assures us that nothing needs to make sense.
4. WOLFGANG TILLMANS. I DON’T WANT TO GET OVER YOU. 2000
As though taken from a moving car, I don’t want to get over you evokes the euphoric essence of rolling mountains, vast grassy plains and endless skies. By deliberately tinting the landscape blue and permeating the surface with dark streaks of ink, Wolfgang Tillmans subverts its primordial beauty and plunges us instead into a state of melancholy, reminiscent of the romantic anguish we feel when we move from union to separation. Yet, as the beacon of light emerges from behind the clouds, we are reminded of our capacity to heal and hope again.
5. FELIX GONZALEZ-TORRES. UNTITLED (PERFECT LOVERS). 1991
Untitled (Perfect Lovers) consists of two battery-powered clocks originally set to the same time, which inevitably fall out of sync before being reset. In grappling with his grief over the passing of his HIV-positive partner, Gonzalez-Torres wrote to him: “Don’t be afraid of the clocks, they are our time, the time has been so generous to us…we are a product of the time, therefore we give back credit where it is due: time. We are synchronized, now forever. I love you.”. In this way, the clocks serve as a moving metaphor for the unpredictable passing of time, as well as the resilient faculty that is love.
6. TRACEY EMIN. I CRIED BECAUSE I LOVE YOU. 2015
One of Tracey Emin’s later neon works I Cried Because I Love You reveals the complex interiority of what it means to love and lose over and over. The act of crying, so innate that we are born in tears, serves as a parallel to the natural yet unexpected processes of falling in and out of love. Emin’s use of her own handwriting lends a particular poignancy, allowing her innermost ruminations on love to transcend into universality.
7. DAVID HOCKNEY. MY PARENTS. 1977
Filled with light and colour, David Hockney’s My Parents is a reflection on the peculiar dynamics of family that we come to love by virtue of belonging to. His mother looks affectionately at him, while his father seems to be oblivious to the occasion as he remains engrossed in his book. Mundane yet familiar, this is the kind of scene we indulge in when we feel the dread of time catching up to us and yearn for a return to the comforts of home.
8. CONSTANTIN BRÂNCUȘI. THE KISS. 1916
Recognised as one of the most accomplished abstract sculptures of the 20th century, Constantin Brâncuși’s The Kiss depicts two figures merged into a single form. Carved out of limestone, their two eyes come together to create one perfectly shaped eye, their hairlines arch in harmonious symmetry and their arms encircle each other amorously. As such, Brâncuși immortalises our profound inclination to give ourselves over to those we love, to become whole with them.
9. SOPHIE CALLE. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. 2007
An operatic display of heartache, Take Care of Yourself is Sophie Calle’s way of coming to terms with being broken up with via email. Emulating her former lover’s delivery, she opts for an equally clinical response- collecting 107 womens’ interpretations of the email, varying from video performances to textual analysis, arranging them methodically like a wall of evidence. Refusing to draw any conclusive results from the evidence, Calle highlights instead the tenacity with which women endure such cruel ruptures and by extension take care of themselves.
10. IAIN FORSYTH AND JANE POLLARD. ANYONE ELSE ISN’T YOU. 2005
Anyone Else Isn’t You is a 30-minute black and white video during which 14 people discuss the importance of music in their romantic relationships. The video cuts between the different narratives such that they become interspersed, each song mentioned functioning as a relic of a remembered person or sliver of time. In doing so, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard celebrate the nostalgic notion of carefully constructing a mixtape as a means of expressing our love for another.
Watch a segment of Anyone Else Isn’t You here.
11. MASAHISA FUKASE. FROM WINDOW. 1974
Masahisa Fukase’s series From Window is a radiant set of snapshots of his wife, taken every morning as she left their apartment. Tender and playful, she appears here in that exalting, pre-possessing light only a lover can procure. Despite Fukase’s otherwise rather somber body of work, these images offer an idyllic vision of a time once made wonderful by companionship.
12. HENRY MOORE. MOTHER AND CHILD. 1932
Harnessing the strength and fortitude of maternal love, Henry Moore’s 1932 sculpture beholds a deeply affecting tension. Although already safely cocooned, the timid child latches onto the mother’s chest, as she peers attentively over her large shoulder on the look-out for any potential dangers. An ode to the instinctual bonds forged in motherhood- the determination to love and protect at all costs.
13. ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE. EMBRACE. 1982
Embrace is a prodigious example of Robert Mapplethorpe’s ability to capture human sensuality. The image features two men in an impassioned hug, their bare chests compressed together, heads buried solidly in each other’s necks. Identical apart from their skin tone, Mapplethorpe utilises the binaries of black and white to effuse the image with an inexplicable warmth and intensity. It continues to resonate today as a striking depiction of both queer and interracial connection.
14. NOBUYOSHI ARAKI. UNTITLED FROM “SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY – THE COMPLETE CONTACT SHEETS”. 1971: 2015
While Nobuyoshi Araki is most well-known for his erotic photography of Japan’s underground sex scene, it is his first photobook Sentimental Journey that contains his most vulnerable work. Charting his relationship with his wife, the images drift seamlessly between her posing in cheap hotel rooms, to her gazing up at him during sex, to her eventually lying in a coffin. As startlingly raw as these images may be, they teach us of the inherent temporality of love- that there will always be a before, now, and after. No single phase worthier than the other of commemoration.
When we think of love, we tend to envision it in its quintessentially romantic form- passionate, ecstatic and all-consuming. In reality, love is so much more complicated than that. From the unconditional love we reserve for family to the intrinsic love we cultivate for self, there are countless avenues and means by which we can experience love. This Valentine’s day, we explore 14 artworks that make our hearts skip a beat.
1. NAN GOLDIN. RISE AND MONTY KISSING, NEW YORK CITY. 1980.
Rise and Monty Kissing, New York City is one of 700 moments captured in Nan Goldin’s iconic photo narrative The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. It is, as she puts it, the diary she lets people read. Documenting the yearning for intimacy between friends and lovers, the images are irresistibly candid, mirroring the mercurial yet often rapturous nature of such relationships. Here, the couple grasp at each other as their open mouths envelop- their palpable desperation implying some irrational fear that they will extinguish if they let go or come up for breath. Such is the urgency of love.
2. MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ AND ULAY. REST ENERGY. 1980.
In performance art piece Rest Energy, artists and then-lovers Marina Abramović and Ulay face each other as they draw a bow and arrow, each leaning back while holding one side. Microphones pick up their accelerating pulses and erratic breathing as the arrowhead is directed fatally at Abramović’s heart. What seems initially as an anxiety-inducing scenario gradually eases into a peaceful portrait of trust, a journey so natural to those in love and prepared to stake themselves upon the extremism of that emotion.
Watch Rest Energy in motion here.
3. MARC CHAGALL. THE BIRTHDAY. 1887
Marc Chagall once said that “love and fantasy go hand in hand”. The Birthday is his purest manifestation of this sentiment. Painted just a few weeks before his marriage, it is a tableau of loving bliss and devotion. The two bodies defy all logic; the man floats whimsically above the woman, his body twisting magnificently backwards and around to reach her lips, her feet lifting off the crimson carpet as she stares wide-eyed up at him. In the heady throes of love, Chagall assures us that nothing needs to make sense.
4. WOLFGANG TILLMANS. I DON’T WANT TO GET OVER YOU. 2000
As though taken from a moving car, I don’t want to get over you evokes the euphoric essence of rolling mountains, vast grassy plains and endless skies. By deliberately tinting the landscape blue and permeating the surface with dark streaks of ink, Wolfgang Tillmans subverts its primordial beauty and plunges us instead into a state of melancholy, reminiscent of the romantic anguish we feel when we move from union to separation. Yet, as the beacon of light emerges from behind the clouds, we are reminded of our capacity to heal and hope again.
5. FELIX GONZALEZ-TORRES. UNTITLED (PERFECT LOVERS). 1991
Untitled (Perfect Lovers) consists of two battery-powered clocks originally set to the same time, which inevitably fall out of sync before being reset. In grappling with his grief over the passing of his HIV-positive partner, Gonzalez-Torres wrote to him: “Don’t be afraid of the clocks, they are our time, the time has been so generous to us…we are a product of the time, therefore we give back credit where it is due: time. We are synchronized, now forever. I love you.”. In this way, the clocks serve as a moving metaphor for the unpredictable passing of time, as well as the resilient faculty that is love.
6. TRACEY EMIN. I CRIED BECAUSE I LOVE YOU. 2015
One of Tracey Emin’s later neon works I Cried Because I Love You reveals the complex interiority of what it means to love and lose over and over. The act of crying, so innate that we are born in tears, serves as a parallel to the natural yet unexpected processes of falling in and out of love. Emin’s use of her own handwriting lends a particular poignancy, allowing her innermost ruminations on love to transcend into universality.
7. DAVID HOCKNEY. MY PARENTS. 1977
Filled with light and colour, David Hockney’s My Parents is a reflection on the peculiar dynamics of family that we come to love by virtue of belonging to. His mother looks affectionately at him, while his father seems to be oblivious to the occasion as he remains engrossed in his book. Mundane yet familiar, this is the kind of scene we indulge in when we feel the dread of time catching up to us and yearn for a return to the comforts of home.
8. CONSTANTIN BRÂNCUȘI. THE KISS. 1916
Recognised as one of the most accomplished abstract sculptures of the 20th century, Constantin Brâncuși’s The Kiss depicts two figures merged into a single form. Carved out of limestone, their two eyes come together to create one perfectly shaped eye, their hairlines arch in harmonious symmetry and their arms encircle each other amorously. As such, Brâncuși immortalises our profound inclination to give ourselves over to those we love, to become whole with them.
9. SOPHIE CALLE. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. 2007
An operatic display of heartache, Take Care of Yourself is Sophie Calle’s way of coming to terms with being broken up with via email. Emulating her former lover’s delivery, she opts for an equally clinical response- collecting 107 womens’ interpretations of the email, varying from video performances to textual analysis, arranging them methodically like a wall of evidence. Refusing to draw any conclusive results from the evidence, Calle highlights instead the tenacity with which women endure such cruel ruptures and by extension take care of themselves.
10. IAIN FORSYTH AND JANE POLLARD. ANYONE ELSE ISN’T YOU. 2005
Anyone Else Isn’t You is a 30-minute black and white video during which 14 people discuss the importance of music in their romantic relationships. The video cuts between the different narratives such that they become interspersed, each song mentioned functioning as a relic of a remembered person or sliver of time. In doing so, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard celebrate the nostalgic notion of carefully constructing a mixtape as a means of expressing our love for another.
Watch a segment of Anyone Else Isn’t You here.
11. MASAHISA FUKASE. FROM WINDOW. 1974
Masahisa Fukase’s series From Window is a radiant set of snapshots of his wife, taken every morning as she left their apartment. Tender and playful, she appears here in that exalting, pre-possessing light only a lover can procure. Despite Fukase’s otherwise rather somber body of work, these images offer an idyllic vision of a time once made wonderful by companionship.
12. HENRY MOORE. MOTHER AND CHILD. 1932
Harnessing the strength and fortitude of maternal love, Henry Moore’s 1932 sculpture beholds a deeply affecting tension. Although already safely cocooned, the timid child latches onto the mother’s chest, as she peers attentively over her large shoulder on the look-out for any potential dangers. An ode to the instinctual bonds forged in motherhood- the determination to love and protect at all costs.
13. ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE. EMBRACE. 1982
Embrace is a prodigious example of Robert Mapplethorpe’s ability to capture human sensuality. The image features two men in an impassioned hug, their bare chests compressed together, heads buried solidly in each other’s necks. Identical apart from their skin tone, Mapplethorpe utilises the binaries of black and white to effuse the image with an inexplicable warmth and intensity. It continues to resonate today as a striking depiction of both queer and interracial connection.
14. NOBUYOSHI ARAKI. UNTITLED FROM “SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY – THE COMPLETE CONTACT SHEETS”. 1971: 2015
While Nobuyoshi Araki is most well-known for his erotic photography of Japan’s underground sex scene, it is his first photobook Sentimental Journey that contains his most vulnerable work. Charting his relationship with his wife, the images drift seamlessly between her posing in cheap hotel rooms, to her gazing up at him during sex, to her eventually lying in a coffin. As startlingly raw as these images may be, they teach us of the inherent temporality of love- that there will always be a before, now, and after. No single phase worthier than the other of commemoration.
When we think of love, we tend to envision it in its quintessentially romantic form- passionate, ecstatic and all-consuming. In reality, love is so much more complicated than that. From the unconditional love we reserve for family to the intrinsic love we cultivate for self, there are countless avenues and means by which we can experience love. This Valentine’s day, we explore 14 artworks that make our hearts skip a beat.
1. NAN GOLDIN. RISE AND MONTY KISSING, NEW YORK CITY. 1980.
Rise and Monty Kissing, New York City is one of 700 moments captured in Nan Goldin’s iconic photo narrative The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. It is, as she puts it, the diary she lets people read. Documenting the yearning for intimacy between friends and lovers, the images are irresistibly candid, mirroring the mercurial yet often rapturous nature of such relationships. Here, the couple grasp at each other as their open mouths envelop- their palpable desperation implying some irrational fear that they will extinguish if they let go or come up for breath. Such is the urgency of love.
2. MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ AND ULAY. REST ENERGY. 1980.
In performance art piece Rest Energy, artists and then-lovers Marina Abramović and Ulay face each other as they draw a bow and arrow, each leaning back while holding one side. Microphones pick up their accelerating pulses and erratic breathing as the arrowhead is directed fatally at Abramović’s heart. What seems initially as an anxiety-inducing scenario gradually eases into a peaceful portrait of trust, a journey so natural to those in love and prepared to stake themselves upon the extremism of that emotion.
Watch Rest Energy in motion here.
3. MARC CHAGALL. THE BIRTHDAY. 1887
Marc Chagall once said that “love and fantasy go hand in hand”. The Birthday is his purest manifestation of this sentiment. Painted just a few weeks before his marriage, it is a tableau of loving bliss and devotion. The two bodies defy all logic; the man floats whimsically above the woman, his body twisting magnificently backwards and around to reach her lips, her feet lifting off the crimson carpet as she stares wide-eyed up at him. In the heady throes of love, Chagall assures us that nothing needs to make sense.
4. WOLFGANG TILLMANS. I DON’T WANT TO GET OVER YOU. 2000
As though taken from a moving car, I don’t want to get over you evokes the euphoric essence of rolling mountains, vast grassy plains and endless skies. By deliberately tinting the landscape blue and permeating the surface with dark streaks of ink, Wolfgang Tillmans subverts its primordial beauty and plunges us instead into a state of melancholy, reminiscent of the romantic anguish we feel when we move from union to separation. Yet, as the beacon of light emerges from behind the clouds, we are reminded of our capacity to heal and hope again.
5. FELIX GONZALEZ-TORRES. UNTITLED (PERFECT LOVERS). 1991
Untitled (Perfect Lovers) consists of two battery-powered clocks originally set to the same time, which inevitably fall out of sync before being reset. In grappling with his grief over the passing of his HIV-positive partner, Gonzalez-Torres wrote to him: “Don’t be afraid of the clocks, they are our time, the time has been so generous to us…we are a product of the time, therefore we give back credit where it is due: time. We are synchronized, now forever. I love you.”. In this way, the clocks serve as a moving metaphor for the unpredictable passing of time, as well as the resilient faculty that is love.
6. TRACEY EMIN. I CRIED BECAUSE I LOVE YOU. 2015
One of Tracey Emin’s later neon works I Cried Because I Love You reveals the complex interiority of what it means to love and lose over and over. The act of crying, so innate that we are born in tears, serves as a parallel to the natural yet unexpected processes of falling in and out of love. Emin’s use of her own handwriting lends a particular poignancy, allowing her innermost ruminations on love to transcend into universality.
7. DAVID HOCKNEY. MY PARENTS. 1977
Filled with light and colour, David Hockney’s My Parents is a reflection on the peculiar dynamics of family that we come to love by virtue of belonging to. His mother looks affectionately at him, while his father seems to be oblivious to the occasion as he remains engrossed in his book. Mundane yet familiar, this is the kind of scene we indulge in when we feel the dread of time catching up to us and yearn for a return to the comforts of home.
8. CONSTANTIN BRÂNCUȘI. THE KISS. 1916
Recognised as one of the most accomplished abstract sculptures of the 20th century, Constantin Brâncuși’s The Kiss depicts two figures merged into a single form. Carved out of limestone, their two eyes come together to create one perfectly shaped eye, their hairlines arch in harmonious symmetry and their arms encircle each other amorously. As such, Brâncuși immortalises our profound inclination to give ourselves over to those we love, to become whole with them.
9. SOPHIE CALLE. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. 2007
An operatic display of heartache, Take Care of Yourself is Sophie Calle’s way of coming to terms with being broken up with via email. Emulating her former lover’s delivery, she opts for an equally clinical response- collecting 107 womens’ interpretations of the email, varying from video performances to textual analysis, arranging them methodically like a wall of evidence. Refusing to draw any conclusive results from the evidence, Calle highlights instead the tenacity with which women endure such cruel ruptures and by extension take care of themselves.
10. IAIN FORSYTH AND JANE POLLARD. ANYONE ELSE ISN’T YOU. 2005
Anyone Else Isn’t You is a 30-minute black and white video during which 14 people discuss the importance of music in their romantic relationships. The video cuts between the different narratives such that they become interspersed, each song mentioned functioning as a relic of a remembered person or sliver of time. In doing so, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard celebrate the nostalgic notion of carefully constructing a mixtape as a means of expressing our love for another.
Watch a segment of Anyone Else Isn’t You here.
11. MASAHISA FUKASE. FROM WINDOW. 1974
Masahisa Fukase’s series From Window is a radiant set of snapshots of his wife, taken every morning as she left their apartment. Tender and playful, she appears here in that exalting, pre-possessing light only a lover can procure. Despite Fukase’s otherwise rather somber body of work, these images offer an idyllic vision of a time once made wonderful by companionship.
12. HENRY MOORE. MOTHER AND CHILD. 1932
Harnessing the strength and fortitude of maternal love, Henry Moore’s 1932 sculpture beholds a deeply affecting tension. Although already safely cocooned, the timid child latches onto the mother’s chest, as she peers attentively over her large shoulder on the look-out for any potential dangers. An ode to the instinctual bonds forged in motherhood- the determination to love and protect at all costs.
13. ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE. EMBRACE. 1982
Embrace is a prodigious example of Robert Mapplethorpe’s ability to capture human sensuality. The image features two men in an impassioned hug, their bare chests compressed together, heads buried solidly in each other’s necks. Identical apart from their skin tone, Mapplethorpe utilises the binaries of black and white to effuse the image with an inexplicable warmth and intensity. It continues to resonate today as a striking depiction of both queer and interracial connection.
14. NOBUYOSHI ARAKI. UNTITLED FROM “SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY – THE COMPLETE CONTACT SHEETS”. 1971: 2015
While Nobuyoshi Araki is most well-known for his erotic photography of Japan’s underground sex scene, it is his first photobook Sentimental Journey that contains his most vulnerable work. Charting his relationship with his wife, the images drift seamlessly between her posing in cheap hotel rooms, to her gazing up at him during sex, to her eventually lying in a coffin. As startlingly raw as these images may be, they teach us of the inherent temporality of love- that there will always be a before, now, and after. No single phase worthier than the other of commemoration.
