"D.U.V.E.T.R.A.V.E.R.S.E.I.N.S."
One of the most important contemporary artists working in Europe, Annette Messager fragments images and language to explore the concept of fiction, the dialogue between individual and collective identity, and the social issues of normalcy, morality, and the role of women. In her work she forcefully illustrates the idea that all things—a child’s beloved toy, a photograph, a piece of embroidery, a word with seemingly unambiguous meaning—can be transformed into objects of potent expression.
French painter, photographer and sculptor. She studied at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (1962–6). Her first one-woman exhibition was at the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich (1973). During the 1970s her work drew upon everyday life, taking such subjects as toys and needlework. She usually used a range of closely related found-objects (e.g. Pensioners, 1972; Paris, Pompidou), as well as creating performance pieces…