Wim Delvoye

WIM DELVOYE (Belgium, 1965).
"Fuck 1", 2000-2001.
C-Print, copy E.A.
Attached certificate on the back signed by the artist.
Attached certificate issued by Guy Pieters, Guy Pieters Gallery.
Measurements: 125 x 100 cm; 135 x 110 cm.

Wim Delvoye made the first X-rays in 1998, but his interest in science, medicine, the human body and X-ray machines led the Belgian artist to recover them again in 2001, immediately after finishing his well-known work "Cloaca". Of all his series of X-rays, the most famous are the ones with sexual themes. For their realization, Delvoye gathered a group of friends whom he asked to cover their bodies with small amounts of barium (a liquid that accentuates the visibility in X-rays) and to perform sexual acts, having a predilection for fellatio, in hospitals where he was allowed to use the necessary equipment to make X-rays.

Wim Delvoye is a Belgian neo-conceptual artist known for his inventive and often shocking projects. Much of his work focuses on the body. As critic Robert Enright wrote in the art magazine Border Crossings, "Delvoye engages in a way of making art that reorients our understanding of how beauty can be created." Wim Delvoye has an eclectic oeuvre, exhibiting his interest in a range of subjects, from bodily function and scatology to the function of art in today's market economy, and numerous themes in between. He lives and works in Ghent (Belgium). He trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Ghent). Soon after, Delvoye began repainting on wallpaper, coloring existing patterns and challenging the value of free expression vibrating in the art world of the time. Delvoye considers himself a creator of concepts. After 1990, specialists led by Delvoye have executed most of his work. In 1992, he received international recognition with the presentation of his "Mosaic" at Documenta IX, a symmetrical display of tiles glazed with photographs of his own excrement. Documenta IX organizer Jan Hoet said, "Wim Delvoye's strength lies in his ability to engineer conflict by combining fine art and popular art, and playing seriousness against irony." Three of his best known projects are "Cloaca", "Art Farm" and a series of gothic works. Delvoye is perhaps best known for his digestive machine, Cloaca, which he presented at the Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst in Antwerp, after eight years of consultation with experts in fields ranging from plumbing to gastroenterology. In a 2013 exhibition in New York, Delvoye showed intricate laser-cut works that combined architectural and figurative references with forms such as a Möbius strip or a Rorschach inkblot. He has had numerous solo exhibitions in museums throughout Europe, including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, and MUHKA, Antwerp (both in 2000), and was a participating artist in the 48th Venice Biennale (1999) and documenta IX (1997).