Nikolaus Urban
Pose 1: Imitation of the Pose 2, 1974.
Silver gelatin photographic prints, 900 x 600m, photograph 600 x 425mm. Signed, dated and titled by the artist in pencil on white mount board frame.
Diptych work to be displayed beside Pose 2: Imitation of the Pose 1
Pose 2: Imitation of the Pose 1, 1974
Silver gelatin photographic prints, 900 x 600m, photograph 600 x 425mm. Signed, dated and titled by the artist in pencil on white mount board frame.
The repeated pose has a sense of torture or contortion to it which is perhaps unsurprising when considering Urban’s other works. It can be viewed as a dialogue on photography and the human condition. From the series ‘Imitations’.
GRAB A KNIFE AND GO FOR A WALK IN THE CROWD!, 1975
Black screenprint on white stock. 700 x 495mm. Signed and dated, numbered 5/50.
KILL AT LEAST ONE MAN IN YOUR LIFE!, 1975
Black screenprint on white stock. 700 x 495mm. Signed and dated, numbered 3/50.
These two prints are the only known documentation of a performance All cows look the same in the dark, which took place Bonnefantenmuseum, Holland. The prints are dated 1975 and the performance took place c1976.
According to a source present at the performance; the event took place in one of the largest rooms at the museum, in which Urban had placed a round table, some small plastic cows and a rolled up newspaper. Urban entered the room and talked to the cows and the audience laughed. He picked up the rolled newspaper and proceeded to walk among the audience and tapped museum staff on the shoulder with the paper. He then put on a blindfold and unrolled the newspaper to reveal a large carving knife within. Urban moved about the room swinging the knife and the audience quickly dispersed.
The Parrot Training, 1976
Photographic print, Nikolaus Urban. Black and white silver gelatin print. Mounted on paper with artwork caption applied in black Letraset text (as issued). Caption reads 'The Parrot Training, 1976, Amsterdam. Phrase: "Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, daruber muss man schweig...".' Urban says of the performance: ‘I have attempted to teach a parrot a sentence from a philosophical work in German. It was an eight-day performance with the possibility of an immediate end, if the bird would have repeated the phrase. The public was invited to participate in the teaching too. They usually had another tongue and became involved in the mechanical learning as well. Ordinarily this training can be successful only after one has gained the trust of the parrot. Eight days were a very short time. The expectations in our case were based mostly on the fact that the parrot is the symbol of repetition. “Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen” is the last sentence of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. It is a formulation of that of which we must be silent, the quotation excluding itself. One of my dreams before the training: I was in a garden and found a parrot. I told him the sentence. He repeated it immediately. Another dream: Somebody asked me to say the sentence before the last one in the book.’
Quoted from Nikolaus Urban, De Appel's portfolio (Hollandse Week).
For further information about this work, please phone:
+44 (0) 208 693 3871
+44 (0) 7946 856835
Or send us an email.