Blake, Nayland

Halston, Gucci, Fiorucci, 1989

silkscreen on blackboard, 24 x 35" each of 3

A triptych of green blackboards; Halston screened in white letters on panel 1; Gucci screened in white letters on panel 2; Fiorucci screened in white letters on panel 3 Nayland Blake's Halston, Gucci, Fiorucci plays with ideas of identity and narrative, by infusing objects with greater meaning through their arrangement and grouping. This work comes from a series by the artist in which emblematic words are silkscreened on chalkboards. Blake describes the text in this series as objects that are “treated as link(s) in the chain of association.” For Blake, those associations surround notions of homosexuality and gay culture. Halston, Gucci, Fiorucci, ostensibly takes its title from a line in the 1978 disco hit, “He’s the Greatest Dancer” by Sister Sledge. The song describes a sexy, fashionable, man about town who entrances everyone with his good looks and dance moves. Today, the lyrics can be read as a series of clichés about gay men obsessed with appearance and fashion.

1989

Blake, Nayland,  b. United States, 1960

Permanent Collection

1999.89a-c