Classical Bodies, Contemporary Desire: Marc Quinn’s (Uncomfortable) Homage to Antiquity and His Ex-Girlfriend

By Kitty Frith

Image Credits: ‘Heaven’, front and back view, 2017, http://marcquinn.com/artworks/single/all-about-love-heaven1

Marc Quinn’s 2016 – 2017 series ‘All About Love’, provides us with an excellent example of classical aestheticism’s longevity, and the sentimentality and celebration of art it enables. As Herodotus highlighted in Book One of The Histories, humans have a specific fascination for physical representations of recollection: the effort to “prevent the traces of human events being erased from time”. The statue ‘Heaven’ in particular allows us to see the bridge between the Classical and the contemporary: the ideal and the raw. 

First exhibited in London’s Sir John Soane Museum in a room adjacent to a plaster cast of ‘Apollo Belvedere’, originally 140 – 120 BC, Quinn immediately shows the influence of Antiquity. Heaven’s Classical style uses glass-reinforced-polyester to mimic the appearance of the remaining marble copies of Apollo, a statue commonly accepted to celebrate the god slaying the infamous Python to display his claim over the sanctuary at Delphi. Quinn seems to commemorate his relationship with now-ex-girlfriend and life-cast model Jenny Bastet. 

Quinn almost mocks the legacy of classical artefacts being found missing parts, this statue having four arms emerging around one torso. It also recalls Apollo Belvedere after Montosorli (Michelangelo’s pupil) removed the left arm then restored it alongside its right counterpart in 1523 – 1533. Heaven’s embrace also subverts our expectations, as where the second body should be there is a stainless-steel rod. Quinn, perhaps unknowingly, hints at his distance from the relationship – something Bastet has later commented on! Might the name ‘Heaven’ itself be a mockery of his intimacy with Bastet? 

The very modern moulding techniques used in this collection are undeniably reminiscent of the

innovative bronze casting techniques introduced in the 4^th millennium BC whilst also visually echoing the popularity of marble in Classical art. However, the exposed, unrefined edges of eggshell-like glass-reinforced-polyester and biresin-polyurethane contribute to a materialistic vulnerability unlike the solid marble or solid bronze of Classical forms. This is enhanced by the supporting rod and the box from which the statue rises, the latter seeming to represent packing cases used to transport archaeological finds. The wine glass and upwards arrow symbols draw our focus to fragility and a need to be handled with care, of course relevant to ancient art but also perhaps an insight into Quinn’s perspective on his relationship. He puts this piece forward as a longing for Bastet, calling her “my Muse”, dedicating the exhibition and installations to her. Bastet has since said she was “peered pressure” into doing the series and that she is “yet to see the Bronze sculptures”. The pair’s legal issues add a somewhat disturbing layer to Heaven’s biography as an audience aware of this background surely feel some discomfort upon seeing this statue. 

The visceral nature of Heaven is impossible to ignore. Not only is it life-size and totally nude except for short rather peplum-like drapery around the waist, the plaster highlights pores and veins and has pulled out hair of the models. ‘More naked than nude” is how Quinn described it and this certainly seems true in comparison to the traditionally depilated Classical statues. 

Bastet’s form is exposed in a way that reminds me of ‘Aphrodite of Knidos’ 360 – 330 BC – the hands clasped around her middle expose both her breasts and pubic area, offering viewers the opportunity to explore reactions to the female body. Aphrodite of Knidos shocked the classical world as one of the first statues in the Greek world to show a complete nude of a goddess, in a tholos temple that provided a different narrative from each angle. With Aphrodite, Praxiteles furthered the contrapposto tradition to a more sensuous ‘s-bend’, removing some of the mystery and distance of the gods to ancient people. Likewise, Quinn exposes Bastet physically and a modern audience might be initially stunned by how innately her tangible her form appears. Or, modern viewers might also hold a similar admiration to the people of Knidos, who accepted the statue after it was rejected by Kos for being too shocking a portrayal of the goddess. 

In encapsulating their embrace for public experience, Quinn makes Bastet an objectified souvenir rather than a personal celebration of their relationship. His original purpose seems to be revisitation and revitalisation of Antiquity but it is marred by his ignorance of Bastet’s alleged wishes, both during and after the series was created. It is rather disappointing that a collection with such blatantly eroticised titles (‘Lovely’, ‘Hot’, ‘Shake’ etc.) and fetishising of the female body is still around, especially now Bastet has called for its removal! Classical reception, commemoration and mimicry are tangled with reception of the female form, and unresolved conflicts: ‘Heaven’ is even more revealing than it first appears.