Inheritance makes me think of money. Handing down heirlooms after a loved one passes, or being next in line for the deed to the family house. A one-way street, an open-and-shut door. But to Rebecca Ness, inheritance is akin to transformation: taking something old and making it new. Her latest show explores this by revisiting and updating historical paintings in contemporary contexts. Here she proclaims that all of art history belongs as much to her as to anyone else.
In Inheritance, Manet’s “A Bar at the Folies Bergère” (1882) becomes a crowded and sweaty scene at the West Village lesbian institution Cubbyhole. The 19th-century trompe l’oeil board paintings by William Harnett and John F. Peto are updated on a corkboard with cut-out and crumpled pages from art history textbooks and photos of the artist, a Pinterest board brought to life.
