Francis Alÿs : Fabiola: An Investigation

by Stephen Bann, Martha Buskirk, Lynne Cooke, Susan Laningham, and David Morgan

• ISBN13: 9780300139167
• ISBN10: 0300139160
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2008-06-30
• Publisher: Dia Art Foundation

Summary

Mexico Citybased artist Francis Alys (b. 1959) has assembled a group of paintings depicting Saint Fabiola, a 4th-century saint who gave up all earthly possessions and devoted herself to the practice of Christian asceticism. All of the pictures in the collection are based on an original worknow lostby the 19th-century French artist Jean-Jacques Henner. Alys's collection of Fabiola portraits, numbering in the hundreds and painted by amateurs and professionals alike, is the focus of this intriguing book. Not only does it examine the artist's exploration of collecting practices, but the publication also offers an unusual window into aesthetic, sociological, and anthropological values of the past century. In addition to cataloguing each of theFabiolaworks, the book includes Saint Jerome's eulogy for Fabiola (the primary source for Fabiola's biography), followed by an interpretive text on evolving hagiographies and saints'vitae,an analysis of the role of iconographic imagery in the practice of Catholicism, and art historical essays that focus on Alys's practice.

Author Biography

Stephen Bann is professor of art history at the University of Bristol. Martha Buskirk teaches art history and criticism at Montserrat College of Art. Lynne Cooke is curator at Dia Art Foundation. David Morgan is the Phyllis and Richard Duesenberg Professor in Christianity and the Arts and professor of humanities and art history in Christ College, Valparaiso University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. 7
Finding Fabiola	p. 11
Painting Fabiola: The Hagiographer as Literary Artist	p. 23
Beyond Fabiola: Henner In and Out of His Nineteenth-Century Context	p. 31
Consumption as Production	p. 43
Francis Alys: Instigator/Investigator	p. 59
Letter 77, To Oceanus on the Death of Fabiola	p. 81
Catalogue of Works	p. 93
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