Blue Danaé 1 & 2 1998

2 photographs sealed under plex­i­glass and mounted (MDF)
Blue Danaé 1 (close-up) 34 x 49 cm Blue Danaé 1 & 2 42 x 61 cm Edition of 7 Camera Doris Frohnapfel

Insur­ance value Blue Danaé 1 – (nega­tive no. 17) 1,000 Euros Blue Danaé 2 – (nega­tive no. 12) 1,500 Euros 2015 Blue Danaé 1, 35 x 23.5 cm (edition of 7), glossy digital laser expo­sure Price 500 Euros Blue Danaé 1 & 2 are pictured in the cata­logue for the exhi­bi­tion Menschen wie Du und Ich (People Like You and Me), Kölnis­ches Stadt­mu­seum (Cologne City Museum) (D) Korridor Verlag ISBN 3−9804354−6−6 1999

cunt prints – a collec­tion of works:

• Blue Danaé 1 & 2 1998
• cunt prints 2013
• georgy girl 2016
• fanny fans (work in progress)

The two Blue Danaé self-portrait photographs were created a year after the making of Tanya Ury’s video/​performance: Golden Showers, in which, over a two hour period, her body was completely covered in gold leaf by a German art restorer. Blue Danaé 1 & 2 depict the artist seated on blue velvet; the close-up images are of her geni­talia covered in gold leaf. The photos are a homage to Gustav Klimt whose painting ​“Danaé” was created during 1907-08. Danaé was impreg­nated by the god Zeus when he appeared to her in the form of a shower of gold.

Blue Danaé inspired also by Gustave Courbet’s ​“L’Origine Du Monde/​The Origin of the World” (1866), commem­o­rates a so-called ​“Golden” anniver­sary: in the late 1990’s it emerged in the press that for 50 years, Swiss banks had secretly hoarded $6 billion of Nazi Gold. The artist presents herself as the prover­bial ​“crown jewels“1. While also refer­encing David Lynch’s film ​“Blue Velvet” (1986), Blue Danaé in fact deals with the same issues as in many other of Ury’s works:
​“Ury’s perfor­mances and photo­graphic artwork since the mid-1990s stage the gendered, sexu­alised and racialised fixa­tions of the discur­sively and histor­i­cally injured body, positing yet ulti­mately suspending its utopian liber­a­tion from these inscriptions.”
Metaphors of Geno­cide: The Staging of Jewish History and Iden­tity in the Art of Tanya Ury by Cathy S. Gelbin in Perfor­mance and Perfor­ma­tivity in German Cultural Studies, Carolin Duttlinger, Lucia Ruprecht, Andres Webber (eds) 2003, publ. Peter Lang
1 1. crown jewels. uk slang for penis and balls because they are a guarded trea­sure. www​.urban​dic​tionary​.co…

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Presen­ta­tion

1998 Group exhi­bi­tion, Blue Danaé 1, Outfit, Authen­tiz­ität und Maskerade (Authen­ticity and Masquerade), Kunsthaus Rhenania, 12 Inter­na­tionale Photo­szene Köln
1998 Group exhi­bi­tion, Blue Danaé 1 & 2, Davka. Jüdis­ches Leben in Berlin — Tradi­tionen und Visionen (Jewish Life in Berlin — Tradi­tions and Visions), Centrum Judaicum
1999 Blue Danaé 1 & 2, pictured in cata­logue: Menschen wie du und Ich, Kölnis­ches Stadt­mu­seum, Korridor Verlag (D) ISBN 3−9804354−6−6
2007 (23.3.) On the online Femi­nist Art Base: www​.brook​lyn​mu​seum​.org…
Blue Danaé 1, The Eliz­a­beth A. Sackler Center for Femi­nist Art, The Brooklyn Museum, New York (USA)

Collec­tions

2000 Blue Danaé 1, in private collec­tion Dr. Cathy Gelbin (GB)
2015 Blue Danaé 1, 35 x 23.5 cm, glossy digital laser expo­sure in private collec­tion Dr. Elisa Klaphek (GB)