Fred Wilson
To Die Upon a Kiss

@ 2011 Fred Wilson

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Artist Fred Wilson (American, born 1954)American, born 1954

CultureAmerican

Titles

To Die Upon a Kiss

Date2011

Made inUnited States

MediumMurano glass, edition 4/6

Dimensions70 × 68 1/2 × 68 1/2 in. (177.8 × 174 × 174 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the Caroline Wiess Law Accessions Endowment

Object number2013.94

Current Location

The Audrey Jones Beck Building

Ll 21 Hirsch Library

On view

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Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Object Type

SCULPTURE

DescriptionFred Wilson brings a profound knowledge of history and material culture to his superbly crafted sculptures and installations. To Die Upon A Kiss is one of a series of works connecting Venetian glass traditions to William Shakespeare’s Othello. Wilson explains: “I perceive this work as a visual evocation of the fluidity, inconsistency, and fragility of the notion of race. Life and someone’s identity, as well as life and other peoples’ view of that identity, comes into sharp focus at death. The meaninglessness of ‘race’ as a concept becomes crystal clear as well. In To Die Upon a Kiss, it is as if gravity is draining the black from the motionless glass—leaking the life force, the identity, and the blackness out of the body.”

ProvenanceThe artist; [Pace Gallery, New York]; purchased by MFAH, 2013.
Exhibition History"Fred Wilson--Venice Suite: Sala Longhi and Related Works," The Pace Gallery, New York, March 17–April 14, 2012 (another edition).

"Image and Abstraction," Pace Gallery, 510 W. 25th St. New York, NY, 19 July - 16 August 2013 (another edition).

"Fred Wilson: Works 2004-2011," The Cleveland Museum of Art, December 22, 2012–May 5, 2013 (another edition).

"Fred Wilson--Venice Suite: Sala Longhi and Related Works," JGM. Galerie, Paris, France, 7 February - 22 Maarch 2014 (another edition).

"Take It or Leave It: Institution, Image, Ideology," Hammer Museum of Art, University of California, Los angeles, 9 February - 18 May 2014 (another edition), Illustrated in catalogue, p. 175.

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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