Gilbert & George
LONDON PICTURES

On September 15, 2012 Sonnabend Gallery will open The Italian Project: Monica in Grey, Grey and Black by Barry Le Va.

This work, consisting of forty nine collage panels, is a series of compositions based on images of the actress Monica Vitti from the films L’Avventura, L’eclisse and La Notte by Michelangelo Antonioni. Each of these films has a different overall tonality in gradation from black to gray, and these tones became Le Va’s palette as he collaged the fragments of film stills with a variety of materials gathered from his studio over several decades, such as photocopies of his notes and preparatory drawings or technical and scientific diagrams. The images of Monica, isolated from any cinematic narrative and interrupted by the other fragmentary material, form new relationships and abstracted similarities that suggest thought processes made visual.