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Erwin Olaf

The gym

2004

Fuji Crystal Archive digital paper

70 × 100 cm

Location: Paris, France

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13,930 € 13930.0 EUR 13,930 €

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About the artwork

Against a gymnasium backdrop, two cheerleaders stand, arms flailing, looking defeated. The muted colors of their uniforms and the gymnasium contribute to the serious atmosphere of the scene. The cheerfulness usually associated with these figures in the collective memory is here replaced by an expression of defeat and solitude. The stereotypical appearance of the protagonists and the perfectly tidy décor - apart from a pompom left on the ground by the woman on the right in the background - hark back to the American film world of the 1960s. The usual cheerful aesthetic is replaced by a heavy, solitary silence. Like the Rain series from which it derives, this photograph testifies to the emptiness of American culture with the artist's own cynicism.

Expert opinion

Erwin Olaf's photography demonstrates his sense of mise en scène and his taste for cynicism. The aesthetic of American "perfection" is mocked and used to reveal its emptiness, in a dark, muted atmosphere reminiscent of Edward Hopper's inexpressive, serious characters.

About the artist

Erwin Olaf (1959 - 2023) is a Dutch photographer. His work borrows from the codes of both photojournalism and fashion photography, which he has mastered to perfection. In 1988, the photographer was awarded the Young European Photographer prize for his Chessmen series, marking his entry onto the international scene. Preferring to work in series, the artist tells tragic or sordid stories, constructing them through strong contrasts between photographed subjects, lights and objects. His work has been the subject of group and solo exhibitions worldwide, including at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Bilbao Art Center and the Museum of Modern Art in Moscow.

“I realized that this was a world that had disappeared. So I radically simplified the images. Now everyone's waiting for nothing, it's the moment after happiness.”

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