Updated: Oct 3, 2025
You probably already know this about me, but I love art! I mean really love art. Have you ever visited an art exhibition and looked forward to seeing it again and again, up until the final day of the exhibition? And on that day, do you also wish that you could bring the exhibition home with you? I felt the same way about the Modèle vivant exhibition when it closed last year. The good news is that the Nasher Sculpture Center recently published an amazing Modèle vivant exhibition catalogue complete with installation photographs and essays that is now available to bring home.
In October 2022, Nasher Prize Laureate artist Nairy Baghramian walked me through the galleries of the Nasher Sculpture Center to view the Modèle vivant exhibition together with Dr. Catherine Craft, the exhibition curator. Modèle vivant is a French translation for living model and it is clear that Ms. Baghramian is having a conversation with masterworks by Bourgeois, de Kooning, Maillol, Matisse, Noguchi, Picasso, among others in the Nasher collection. While perhaps somewhat abstract, it does not take long for one to see the sculptures come to life in the human form as the sculptures are viewed standing, leaning, sitting, and laying.
The Dangling sculptures have a contemporary, industrial quality with the inclusion of color closeup photographs of animal hair and insects/flies. Although the animal hair is not human, it gives sculpture life-like qualities and perhaps the insects/flies are attracted to the living flesh. I especially enjoyed the ingenious installation resulting from the collaboration between Ms. Baghramian and Dr. Craft that allows for viewing of the Dangling sculptures from all sides. Many of the sculptures are suspended from the ceiling structure with sculptural poles and hooks, some layered with color, creating tension, and allowing some of the sculptures to float precariously just above the floor. Likewise, Louise Bourgeois’ Cove is placed in the middle of the gallery allowing viewers to fully experience the three dimensionality of the sculpture, rarely seen at this vantage.
Smaller, but equally impressive are the Withdrawing series sculptures made from cast lead, wax, and walnut wood. The use of wax is reminiscent of The Concierge, a Medardo Rosso sculpture installed nearby to begin a conversation. The sculptures are strategically placed in an intimate space along the back wall of the Nasher Public gallery. These somewhat hidden treasures contrast the modesty of the cast lead with the elegance of the tinted wax and walnut wood. The Withdrawing sculptures are minimalist in design, but the quality of the wax is captivating with its smooth, rich, and luminous translucency.
In the Standing series, Ms. Baghramian uses sandcast aluminum with scores of pockmarks evoking a more rugged quality. Her technique in creating these unique, natural seeming sculptures is anything but natural, as she uses cutting tools and foam to design the sculptures. Ms. Baghramian carves out the foam with various tools and then collages the carved foam as a form for the sandcast aluminum that constitutes the majority of these works.
I love how Ms. Baghramian describes her body of work in the Modèle vivant exhibition as “imperfectly perfect”, as she shared in our conversation at the Nasher Sculpture Center. Her three large Standing sculptures of cast aluminum, colorful steel base and ceramic tiles seem perfect with the tiles at the base glazed on all visible sides. While similar in form, each Standing sculpture takes on its own identity through the surface treatment of sandblasted, polished, brushed, or exposed, which creates skin-like qualities. Two of them were placed outside the museum building. As the exhibition continued through autumn and into winter, it is clear that Standing (straw yellow), the sculpture most exposed to the elements, experienced some additional effects of aging and slight weathering. With the varying surface treatments, the sculptures appear to take on unique characteristics of the human form by aging differently. In fact, there is some awakening of the inanimate object, which gives life to the sculptures. It seems that the artist gives freedom and liberty to the sculptures to evolve, change and alter by the process of simply existing, much the way humans do by living. In my opinion, it makes the whole body of work much better due to the uniqueness of each sculpture in the Standing series, as they are imperfectly perfect.
I highly recommend the exhibition catalogue, but if you are wanting more, I also recommend seeing The Facade Commission: Nairy Baghramian, Scratching the Back on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art until May 28, 2024.
