Modern & Contemporary Art Mother (Judith II) by Yasumasa Morimura (born 1951, Osaka) Japan, 1991 color photograph, ed. 2/3; 95 1/2 x 63 inches (242.6 x 160 cm) Funds from 1994 Alliance for Contemporary Art Auction 1994.73

In the 1980s,Yasumasa Morimura began photographically recreating Western works of art with himself in the central roles. In Mother (Judith II), he mimics the painting of Judith with the Head of Holofernes by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) by substituting his face for those of Judith and her victim. Regarding his self-portraits, Morimura says, "If I had used a canvas to explore my themes, it would have shown a partiality to a Western language. But photographs are neither Japanese or Western; they represent my sense of existing between two worlds."


To Other Departments