THE LOUNGE

British artist Jonathan Monk (1969) replays, recasts and re-examines seminal works of Conceptual and Minimal art by various witty, ingenious and irreverent means. Speaking in 2009, he said, "Appropriation is something I have used or worked with in my art since starting art school in 1987. At this time (and still now) I realised that being original was almost impossible, so I tried using what was already available as source material." 

Through wall paintings, monochromes, ephemeral sculpture and photography, he reflects on the tendency of contemporary art to devour references, simultaneously paying homage to figures such as Sol LeWitt, Ed Ruscha, Bruce Nauman and Lawrence Weiner, while demystifying the creative process. Monk is constantly asking ‘what next?’

Dear Painter, Paint For Me One Last Time is a series of 10 paintings on a variety of subjects: two men from behind walking down the street; a portrait of a dog; a man in front of a "souvenirs" sign; a signed portrait of a man in his office; a man sitting on a couch in front of a pile of trash; and a couple touching each other at home. 

In this 2011 series, Jonathan Monk refers to German artist Martin Kippenberger's project Lieber Maler, Male Mir (1981). For his first museum show at the Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst in Berlin, Kippenberger asked a movie poster painter named Werner to make 12 paintings with often absurd motifs. Monk ordered ten copies of the series online and put them on display, questioning the canons of authenticity and the copy.