Katharina Fritsch makes meticulous reproductions of everyday objects, rendering them unfamiliar through
extreme shifts in scale and either alluring or repellent color choices. Indeed, saturated and nonreflective coats of color lend her sculptures a strong sense of otherworldliness. “I always call the starting point [for a sculpture] a vision,” she has said. “I’ll be in a tram or driving a car and I suddenly get a picture in my mind. Something completely normal turns into a miracle—something I’ve never seen before. Simple things you see every day turn into something strange, something alien.” Woman with Dog is clearly scaled up— enormously so—from a small figurine made of shells, as one might find in a seaside souvenir shop.
Date
Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.
Jack Bankowsky, Thomas E. Crow, Nicholas Cullinan, and Michael Fried, Sculpture After Sculpture: Frtisch/Koons/Ray, exh. cat. (Hatje Cantz, 2014), 3 (color ill.), 32, 33 (color ill.), 56 (color ill.), 130.
Alexander Forbes, “Manifesta 10 Succeeds Despite Controversy,” Artnet (June 27, 2014), color ill., https://news.artnet.com/art-world/manifesta-10-succeeds-despite-controversy-49930, accessed Aug. 17, 2015.
James Rondeau, Edlis/Neeson Collection: The Art Institute of Chicago, (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015), 76, pl. 31, 77 (color ill.), 131.
New York, Matthew Marks Gallery, Katharina Fritsch, Nov. 6–Dec. 24, 2004, no cat. (another edition).
Ferlach, Austria, Kultustiftung des Bundes, Bodycheck: Skulptur/Sculpture, June 23–Sept. 23, 2007, no cat. no. (another edition).
Kunsthaus Zurich, HundKatzMaus/DogCatMouse, Apr. 1–July 31, 2011, no cat. no, (another editions).
St. Petersburg, The State Museum Hermitage, Manifesta 10: The European biennial of Contemporary Art, June 28–Oct. 31, 2014, no cat. no.
Stockholm, Moderna Museet, Sculpture After Sculpture: Fritsch, Koons, Ray, Oct. 11, 2014–Jan. 18, 2015, no cat. no. (another edition).
The artist; sold through Matthew Marks Gallery, New York to Stefan Edlis, Jan. 7, 2005 [copy of invoice in curatorial object file]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, Apr. 21, 2015.
Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.
