Lucina Ward on Rebecca Horn’s Les Amants (The lovers) 1991
![Installation view of Rebecca Horn's Les Amants [The lovers], 1991. Black paint sprayed across a white wall, by a painting machine.](https://media.nga.gov.au/4akLlISHAHw-AMFjelvcels7rJc=/1600x0///national-gallery-of-australia/media/dd/images/20221017_Rebecca_Horn_The_Lovers_Install_0001.JPG)
Rebecca Horn, Les Amants [The lovers], 1991, National Gallery of Australia, Kamberri/Canberra, purchased 2020 © Rebecca Horn.
The lovers prepare themselves, they bathe in pink champagne and black ink and embrace each other inside the painting machine. In a weightless state of love, in a crazed dance, they perform their painting.
Free, bookings essential
Duration: 45 mins including Q&A
Join Lucina Ward, Senior Curator, International Art, for a talk focused on Rebecca Horn’s Les Amants (The lovers) 1991.
German artist Rebecca Horn (1944–2024) came to prominence in the 1980s for her use of performance, installation, sculpture and film in increasingly sophisticated and intertwined ways. The lovers is a drawing machine fuelled by the combination of ink and champagne: when the correct mixture is achieved, a motorised arm sweeps the wall, spraying and dripping ink across the surface. When the painting is complete, the machine rests until the next ‘performance.’
In this talk, Lucina will discuss The lovers as an example of Horn’s practice of blurring sculpture and performance.
Friday Art Talks is a free weekly program. Hear from artists, curators and experts on the works in our collection and exhibition program. In November, the Art Talk program is focused on sculpture.
This program is wheelchair accessible and four assistive listening devices will be available for attendees who are hard of hearing. Please email learning@nga.gov.au for more information.
