Criticism and the Lover A, B, C 批評とその愛人 A、B、C

Morimura has always surprised us with his works. Many of them share three elements, which are their including the artist's own self-portrait, their being quotations from existing art works and images of mass media, and their use of photographs. From 1989, a new element, the use of computer graphics, joined the list. For this work, he first made a three-dimensional model based on a photograph of Cézanne's "Still Life with Apples and Oranges" (c.1895-1900, Collection of the Musée d'Orsay). Then he photographed it and, by using a computer and an image scanner, changed the number of apples and included among the fruits a photographed image of his own face, wearing make-up and an ecstatic expression. The process is a procedure by which Morimura can experience how Cézanne painted, then this work is his homage to Cézanne. Its title, "Criticism and the Lover" makes it a pair with "Daughter of Art History," which came out the following year. Seeing a familiar work changed in these ways makes us surprise and laugh. Morimura attained fame overnight in Japanese art world in 1985 with a photograph of himself dressed like Van Gogh in his self- portrait. Internationally acclaimed for his works, he is expanding the scope of his activities to various other media, including video and magazines.