Ugo Rondinone violet blue nun, 2020

violet blue nun is a unique sculpture that belongs to Ugo Rondinone’s body of work, nuns + monks. The 3-meter tall sculpture is made of two parts – the body and the head – that form the basic shape of a human body wrapped in a cloak. Cast in bronze, the sculptures were conceived from limestone models. Each sculpture weighs 450 kg approx.

The sculptures in the series present themselves in an “archaic” beauty that brings to mind two other groups of works by the artist: the raw stone figures of Human Nature in Rockefeller Plaza, 2013, and the neon-colored stone mountains Seven Magic Mountains in the desert of Nevada, 2016. These groups are the study and enjoyment of naturally formed stones as objects of beauty and contemplation, and in turn generate personal, meditative states of looking in which the boundaries between the outside world and internally visualized spaces break down. In doing so, Rondinone makes sculptures of what it means and feels like to see, whether this is understood to be a physical or metaphysical phenomenon.

The series nuns + monks continues to address this dual reflection between the inner self and the natural world. Just as the external world one sees is inseparable from the internal structures of oneself, nuns + monks allows such layers of signification to come in and out of focus, prompting the viewer to revel in the pure sensory experience of color, form and mass while simultaneously engender in an altogether contemporary version of the sublime.