Daniel Cooney Fine Art exhibits late artist Steven Arnold's sexy tableaux-vivant.
By Brandon Voss
If a picture’s worth a thousand words, tableaux-vivant must be worth a fortune.
A fixture on the L.A. scene in the ’80s and early ’90s, late artist Steven Arnold was best known for these “living pictures,” staged photographs incorporating elements of theater and painting. Epiphanies, an exhibit of Arnold’s fantastical tableaux-vivant prints, debuts October 29 at Chelsea’s Daniel Cooney Fine Art.
“It’s important work that hasn’t been seen in many years,” says gallerist Cooney. “His models were beautiful, mostly nude, with body paint and costumed with elaborate codpieces and other provocative attire. When I look at his work, it’s like being transported to the ’80s and seeing the inspiration, creation, and evolution of his ideas in person.”
Arnold, a protégé of Salvador Dali, was diagnosed with HIV at height of his popularity and died in 1994. “His work is an unabashed celebration of the male body and his own sexuality, different than a lot of art being made at that time, especially by gay, HIV-positive men,” Cooney continues. “It truly speaks to the person he was: eccentric, joyful, and full of life.”
Next, October 2015.
Photo: Steven Arnold, courtesy of Daniel Cooney Fine Art