RICHARD ARTSCHWAGER, Quotation marks, 2012 [tattoos]
7,7 x 5 cm
4 quotation marks in plastic envelope, transfer prints, printed paper, staple
edition unknown
For sale in 2013 at the Whitney Museum, New York, USA
The space between two quotation marks either on human skin or e.g. on a gallery wall emphasize these spaces in between. This tattoo work with quotation marks is apparently not made to unravel what is ‘quoted’ in a given space.
In March 2013 on its website the Whitney Museum categorizes this multiple as an edition that is ‘Reminiscent of Richard Artschwager’s artwork, where he utilizes punctuation outside of its normal realm, rendering its meaning questionable’ and was sold as “Air Quotes Temporary Tattoos”. There is no printed name of Richard Artschwager as a kind of authorization comparable to the earrings The Whitney had simultaneously for sale. See a text on one of the mini-leporellos reading: “These earrings are based on Richard Artschwager’s 1980 Quotation Mark originally fabricated in Formica on painted wood in an edition of 25. Made exclusively for the Whitney Museum in a limited quantity.”
