Sam Taylor-Wood at White Cube: A Review of "New Work"
This paper offers a firsthand critical review of photographer and video artist Sam Taylor-Wood's 2004 exhibition "New Work" at the White Cube Gallery in London. The author examines the three main works on display: "Crying Men," a series of close-up photographs of weeping male celebrities; "Strings," a video installation featuring Royal Ballet dancer Ivan Putrov suspended by wires; and "Self-Portrait Suspended," a set of photographs in which Taylor-Wood appears to float in midair. The review considers the thematic coherence of suspension—literal and emotional—across all three works, addresses criticisms of celebrity enthrallment, and concludes that Taylor-Wood's art merits its recognition on its own terms.
- Introduction: Approaching the Exhibition: Personal context and initial skepticism about Taylor-Wood
- Crying Men: Celebrity, Grief, and Vulnerability: Close-up photographs of weeping male celebrities
- Strings: Dance, Fantasy, and Suspension: Ballet dancer suspended by wires in video installation
- Self-Portrait Suspended: Body, Illness, and Identity: Artist appears to float; illness and body symbolism
- Conclusion: Taylor-Wood's Artistic Merit: Exhibition's thematic unity and artist's deserved success
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What makes this paper effective
- The author establishes a clear evaluative lens from the outset — initial skepticism about the artist's connections — and honestly revisits that position in the conclusion, giving the review intellectual honesty and a satisfying arc.
- Each of the three works receives focused, specific description before interpretation, grounding the analysis in observable detail rather than vague impressionism.
- The central metaphor of "suspension" — both literal and figurative — is identified and traced across all three works, giving the review genuine thematic coherence.
Key academic technique demonstrated
This paper demonstrates the technique of thematic synthesis in art criticism: the author identifies a unifying concept (suspension — physical, emotional, and temporal) and tests it against each individual work, showing how a single interpretive framework can illuminate an entire exhibition rather than treating each piece in isolation.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with personal context and a statement of initial bias, then moves through the three exhibition subjects in the order encountered, offering description followed by interpretation for each. A brief evaluative digression on the artist's biography and critical reputation precedes the conclusion, which returns to the opening question of whether Taylor-Wood deserves her success. The "Works Consulted" list closes the paper in standard bibliographic form.
Introduction: Approaching the Exhibition
In December 2004, I visited the White Cube Art Gallery in London with my art class to view an exhibition by photographer and video artist Sam Taylor-Wood. Her work combines elements of photography, film, and video installation. I knew little about Taylor-Wood other than that she was married to art dealer and White Cube Gallery owner Jay Jopling, and that a previous video installation of hers, "David" — named for footballer David Beckham — had featured a nine-minute video of Beckham sleeping and been shown at the National Portrait Gallery. I wondered, then, whether Taylor-Wood was in fact talented enough on her own to be so successful at such a young age, or whether her marriage to Jopling had hurried her art to the forefront. I approached the exhibition with a mixture of skepticism, curiosity, and suspense. As it turned out, "suspense" — in both its literal and figurative meanings — was a main motif.
Crying Men: Celebrity, Grief, and Vulnerability
The exhibition consists of three subjects. The first, "Crying Men," is a series of 28 close-up photographs of celebrities — including Paul Newman, Benicio del Toro, and Dustin Hoffman — weeping before the camera: that is, suspended in grief and self-absorption, in time and space, and between physical and emotional states. The pictures appear in both black-and-white and color.
By Taylor-Wood's own account, she did not inform the actors in advance what she would ask them to do during the shoot. After they agreed to be photographed, she met with each actor individually and, during the session, asked him to cry. Not all of them burst into tears on command — though they had likely been asked to do so hundreds of times before on film sets. Some took a while to weep; some resorted to artificial means; and one "almost started crying before taking the camera out." The result is a series that probes the boundary between public performance and private emotion, asking whether a celebrity's tears are ever truly unguarded.
Strings: Dance, Fantasy, and Suspension
The second subject, "Strings," is a nine-minute video of Ivan Putrov, then the youngest principal dancer of the Royal Ballet, dancing while suspended by wires from the ceiling of the Crush Bar of the Royal Opera House. Below Putrov, a string quartet plays — at double speed, since Putrov would otherwise have had to dance too slowly and his movements would have appeared jerky — a beautiful but melancholy movement from Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No. 2. The wire suspension allows Putrov to achieve movements that defy the normal physical constraints of the human body, producing a dreamlike quality that blurs the boundary between athletic reality and pure fantasy.
Conclusion: Taylor-Wood's Artistic Merit
After seeing the exhibition, I concluded that, although Taylor-Wood — a 1990 graduate of art college — might not be as widely known today were it not for her marriage to Jopling, she deserves her success. According to Venus, Taylor-Wood has been accused of emotional contrivance in "Crying Men" (her subjects are all famous actors; are they truly crying or merely performing?) and of an enthrallment with celebrity culture for its own sake (as in both "Crying Men" and "David"). I feel, however, that Taylor-Wood is more genuinely interested in exploring the boundaries between public and private selves ("Crying Men"), between fantasy and reality ("Self-Portrait Suspended"), and between imagination and physical constraint ("Strings").
What the three works share is that they are all, in one sense or another, suspended: literally so in "Strings" and "Self-Portrait Suspended," and in terms of emotional vulnerability in "Crying Men." Across this exhibition, Sam Taylor-Wood endeavors to explore our physical and emotional boundaries. In that aim, I believe she succeeds.
Works Consulted
"Actors Turn on the Tears for Artist Sam Taylor-Wood." Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved January 4, 2005.
Sooke, Alistair. "Alistair Sooke Reviews Strings at Edinburgh College of Art." Arts Telegraph. Retrieved December 14, 2004.
Jones, Jonathan. "Sam Taylor-Wood: White Cube, London." Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved December 14, 2004.
"The Crying Game: The IoS Profile: Sam Taylor-Wood." RedNova News. Retrieved January 4, 2005.
"Sam Taylor-Wood." Venus. Retrieved January 4, 2005.
"Sam Taylor-Wood: New Work: 29 October – 4 December 2004." Retrieved January 5, 2005.
"Sam Taylor-Wood: 'New Work' Art Exhibition at White Cube." Ballet-Dance Magazine. Retrieved January 4, 2005.
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