26 October 1993

Artist| Henry Bond
Sam Taylor-Wood
Year| 1993 (1993)
Medium| Photograph
Movement| Pastiche
Dimensions| 23 in × 19 in (58 cm × 48 cm)[1]
Location| Tate Modern, London

26 October 1993 is an artwork created in 1993 as a collaboration between English artists Henry Bond and Sam Taylor-Wood, both of whom were involved in the Young British Artists scene of contemporary art. It is a pastiche or remaking of a well-known photographic portrait of John Lennon and Yoko Ono that was made by Annie Leibovitz a few hours before Lennon's murder.

## Production and critical reception

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Annie Leibovitz's original 1980 photo. Annie Leibovitz's photo on the cover of Rolling Stone

The photo "made a splash in the British art scene in 1993."[2] The work was exhibited as part of the exhibition Brilliant! held at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, USA, in 1995.

In his 2001 book High Art Lite, art historian Julian Stallabrass states that the Bond/Taylor-Wood version offers a "reversal of gender roles" (however, the original also has Lennon and Ono in the same position). Stallabrass also states that:

> "The work refers to naïve 1960s idealism, though not entirely mockingly, rather asking the viewer to contrast the situation in the 1990s with the 1960s ... for such artists, it is clear we are living in a time of the twilight of ideals."[3]

Commenting on the photo-work in 2010, Taylor-Wood said:

> The bizarre thing is that I'd completely forgotten about that piece until it was brought up in an interview ... I don't remember what drove us to make it. Must have been high concept in there somewhere, but God knows what it was. I guess there's a running interest in male vulnerability in my work, so maybe it's just that.[4]

The authorship of this artwork has been contested with both artists, at different times, assuming control of the image and asserting origination/intellectual property; indeed, it has been suggested that the photographer that the pair hired to shoot the photograph also later claimed authorship of it.[5]

The photograph is 23 in × 19 in (58 cm × 48 cm); on 23 October 2001, the photograph was offered at an art auction held by Christie's Auctioneers as "work number five from an edition of five" and sold for $15,059.[1]

## References

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1. ^ a b "Sam Taylor-Wood (b. 1967) and Henry Bond (b. 1966)". Christie's Auction. London. 2001. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
2. ^ Richard Corliss, "Nowhere Boy: Lennon and McCartney Before the Beatles," Time/CNN, 8 October 2010
3. ^ Stallabrass, Julian (2001). High Art Lite: British Art in the 1990s. London: Verso. pp. 140–141. ISBN 9781859843185. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
4. ^ Josef Braun, "Nowhere Boy Archived 6 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine," Vue Weekly, 1 December 2010.
5. ^ G.R. Denson,Going Back to Start, Perpetually: Playing the Nomadic Game in the Critical Reception of Art, in: 'Parkett', no. 40/41, 1994, p. 153. See, for example, Germano Celant (ed.) Sam Taylor-Wood, Milan: Fondazione Prada, 1998, p.33, where the image appears attributed to Taylor-Wood; whereas, in Joshua Decter (ed.) Don't Look Now, New York: Thread Waxing, 1994, p. 15, the same photo appears attributed to Bond alone.

## External links

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* Art Monthly article on 60s music inspired art
* Original Walker Art Center, 1995 press release

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Young British Artists

Artists|

* Fiona Banner
* Henry Bond
* Christine Borland
* Glenn Brown
* Angela Bulloch
* Jake and Dinos Chapman
* Adam Chodzko
* Mat Collishaw
* Ian Davenport
* Tacita Dean
* Tracey Emin
* Angus Fairhurst
* Nick Fudge
* Anya Gallaccio
* Liam Gillick
* Douglas Gordon
* Marcus Harvey
* Damien Hirst
* Gary Hume
* Michael Landy
* Abigail Lane
* Chris Ofili
* Sarah Lucas
* Stephen Park
* Richard Patterson
* Simon Patterson
* Steven Pippin
* Marc Quinn
* Fiona Rae
* Alessandro Raho
* Jenny Saville
* Georgina Starr
* Sam Taylor-Johnson
* Gavin Turk
* Gillian Wearing
* Rachel Whiteread
* Jane and Louise Wilson

Teachers|

* Basil Beattie
* Helen Chadwick
* Michael Craig-Martin
* Ian Jeffrey
* Jon Thompson
* Mark Wallinger
* Richard Wentworth

Influences|

* Art & Language
* Art in Ruins
* Conceptual art
* Gilbert & George
* Jeff Koons
* John Stezaker
* Andy Warhol
* Lawrence Weiner

Artworks|

* 24 Hour Psycho
* Break Down
* Bullet Hole
* Documents Series
* Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995
* For the Love of God
* House
* My Bed
* Myra
* No Woman No Cry
* 26 October 1993
* The Upper Room
* Tense
* The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living

Shows|

* Brilliant!
* East Country Yard Show
* Freeze
* Modern Medicine
* Sensation

Curators|

* Joshua Compston
* Carl Freedman
* Gregor Muir
* Norman Rosenthal
* Jon Thompson

Galleries|

* Anthony d'Offay Gallery
* Curtain Road Arts
* City Racing
* Gagosian Gallery
* Karsten Schubert Gallery
* Lisson Gallery
* Maureen Paley
* Saatchi Gallery
* Sadie Coles HQ
* South London Gallery
* Victoria Miro Gallery
* White Cube

Collectors|

* Bernard Arnault
* Janet Wolfson de Botton
* Eli Broad
* Frank Cohen
* Steven A. Cohen
* Dakis Joannou
* Pauline Karpidas
* George Michael
* Jose Mugrabi
* François Pinault
* Miuccia Prada
* Charles Saatchi
* Jack Wendler
* Poju and Anita Zabludowicz

Advocates|

* Louisa Buck
* Matthew Collings
* Richard Cork
* Andrew Graham-Dixon
* Sarah Kent
* Stuart Morgan
* Norman Rosenthal
* Sir Nicholas Serota
* Matthew Slotover

Opponents|

* BANK
* Billy Childish
* James Heartfield
* Matthew Higgs
* David Lee
* Brian Sewell
* Julian Stallabrass
* Stuckists
* Charles Thomson

See also|

* Conceptual art
* Frieze Art Fair
* Momart
* Post-YBAs
* Turner Prize

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