Paul Thek,
Thek's Tomb, 1967.
Whoah nice! Add
Paul Thek at the
Whitney to
my list of upcoming shows to see... opens 10/21.
Photo above is scanned from a
Robert Pincus-Witten Artforum article of 1967, showing Thek beside his wax cast self-portrait... part of his most(?) famous piece,
Thek's Tomb... or
Death of a Hippie.
Thek's Tomb was shown at the
Stable Gallery, where
"one enters a spacious, rosily-lit and incensed haze out of which rises a large, three-tiered ziggurat"... inside the 11.5' tomb
the wax cast
... "All is 'petal and American vermilion' pink - the light, the garments, the Tomb interior, the shoes"...
"pinned to the cheeks are discs of painted butterfly-wing patterns. A funerary necklace alternates these circles with passages of hair, ending in a pendant and a long wash of hair that runs down the length"... the mouth is part open, blackened tongue protruding... the fingers of the right hand are sliced off, placed in a pouch hanging on the wall.
This piece has since been lost.
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