Christopher Wool
Untitled, 1991
Information about the artwork
- MaterialEnamel on aluminium
- Dimensions228.6 x 152.6 cm
- Year of acquisition1992
- Inventory numberUAB 617
- On viewGround floor
- Copyright© Christopher Wool
More about the artwork
Christopher Wool’s work displays the words "CATS IN BAG,” written in stenciled black letters on a stark white background. Wool leaves it to the viewer to complete the truncated quote of Tony Curtis’s line “The cat’s in the bag and the bag’s in the river,” from the 1957 film noir “Sweet Smell of Success.” As in the film, which caustically deals with the relationship between a megalomaniacal New York gossip columnist and an unscrupulous press agent, Wool’s paintings from this time convey an underlying sense of anxiety and pessimism. In the film, this was the watchword for the murder of an aspiring musician. The painted slogan expresses the codes of such unfathomable power relations, in all their poetry.
