Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley: The Rape of Europa / Barbara Kruger: Body Language

Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley and Barbara Kruger were commissioned by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum to create works of art in response to one of six 16th-century paintings made by Titian for King Philip II of Spain. In Titian’s poesie (“painted poetry”), on view in Titian: Women, Myth & Power, the female subjects and the fates that befall them, especially at the hands of men, raise questions about gender, power, sexuality and violence. These new works reconsider Titian’s Renaissance paintings, offering contemporary perspectives on the complex consequences illustrated in each as well as issues still pervasive in society today including who gets to view, manage and control women’s bodies. 

For decades, Barbara Kruger has addressed cultural constructions of power, identity, and sexuality in her work. Known for combining imagery with compelling captions, Body Language (2021) is a striking and provocative depiction of two entwined bodies, using details from Titian’s painting Diana and Actaeon (1556-9). This frozen gesture of power and submission, overlaid with Kruger’s signature bold text, invites us to reconsider the representation of women, sexual dynamics, and art historical concept of the “gaze.” The work is installed on the Anne H. Fitzpatrick Façade adjacent to the Museum’s entrance. 

“Looking at myths across the ages with a contemporary lens is a powerful tool to better understand the past and the present. I am so grateful to Barbara Kruger and Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley for giving us an extraordinary rereading of Titian through the amazing work they have created for this exhibition,” shares Pieranna Cavalchini, Tom and Lisa Blumenthal Curator of Contemporary Art. 

Internationally recognized for their video work, Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley (Gardner Museum Artists-in-Residence), have created a graphically stylized short film, The Rape of Europa (2021), in response to the scene of sexual violence romanticized in Titian’s 1562 painting of the same title. This biting, witty, and bawdy film combines painting, performance, and Mary’s distinctive satirical poetry, layered by Patrick into an episodic fable-like reenactment of stories from classical antiquity. Mary plays a range of mythical characters trapped between comic and tragic scenarios, including Europa who is no longer a Phoenician princess frolicking with her friends but a disgruntled and traumatized young lawyer coping with the aftermath of four violent physical assaults on her person. The nine-minute film on view in the Museum’s Fenway Gallery, gives Europa a perspective and agency excluded from traditional historical portrayals written and painted by men.

Related programs:
The Larger Conversation: Creative Collision (virtual)
September 30, 2021 
Featuring Mary Reid Kelley, Patrick Kelley, Jenni Sorkin, and Jill Burke

Screening Myths and Talkback
December 9, 2021
Film viewing with Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley

To learn more about the suite of Titian-related exhibitions, please click here.