NEW YORK, NY.- Christie's Private Sales announces Other Graces: Photographs by Sante D'Orazio, a selling exhibition that spans the photographer’s exhilarating career from the 1990s to present. Sante D’Orazio’s oeuvre is an alluring combination of sex and celebrity: a world populated by beautiful Supermodels, megawatt actresses like Diane Krueger or Kate Moss casually lounging on a sofa, shirtless rock stars like Axl Rose, Keith Richards and high-profile sirens like Pamela Anderson. Through his lens, modern celebrities became mythological beings, reflecting the values of our idol obsessed times: Eternal Youth. Naked Beauty. Rock ‘n’ Roll. Other Graces will be on view in New York from March 29 through April 19 in Christie’s Private Sales Galleries at Rockefeller Center.
"Art is important to me because it's our only means of documenting our own mythology. New symbols for ancient themes. A source of documentation and exploration of who we are and where do we go from here. A portrait of self both individual and universal, with no answer in sight where everything is possible." — Sante D'Orazio, Photographs (Kunst Haus)
Other Graces focuses on large-scale editions of photographs taken by D’Orazio over the past three decades, newly printed by the artist in editions of 3. The exhibition will include the provocative fashion photographs that he became known for, his Priest series, to be shown for the first time in the United States, and his new works, which have been created from 1970s erotic film footage that has been spliced together and handpainted to create a new abstracted image. The forthcoming catalogue for Other Graces will feature an essay by the acclaimed writer and editor Glenn O'Brien, who writes in his catalogue essay for Other Graces:
“So here we have a boy named Sante, that is Latin for Blessed, D’Orazio, that’s Italian for “of Prayer.” If ever there was an apt recipient for Grace, this must be the place, this must be the guy. You might think that his folks were hoping for a priest, but they got something even better. They got an artist. “ — Glenn O'Brien
In addition to D’Orazio’s remarkable fashion photographs, Other Graces will also present two of the artist’s lesser-known projects. D’Orazio’s tongue in cheek Priest Series portrays today’s most important artists as high Priests of Modern Art. Artists depicted in this series include Jeff Koons, Ed Ruscha, Damien Hirst, Maurizio Cattelan and George Condo. The artist explained: “The concept came about from my own Catholic upbringing as well as from my passion as an artist towards the arts. It's where I found the sacred. The genesis of all the arts begin as rituals conducted by Shamans or priests, the creators of today's sacred objects of worship.”
Sante D’Orazio’s newest body of work, Green Door, was inspired by visible censorship and alterations of erotica. In creating these works, D’Orazio selectively conceals and exposes elements of the composition, effectively creating a newly abstracted canvas which maintains the interactive quality of the original erotic film.
