Andres Serrano

Andres Serrano – More conceptual artist than photographer

Andres Serrano was born in New York City on 15 August 1950. The son of a Honduran immigrant and an Afro-Caribbean mother, he grew up in a strict Catholic environment, which had a lasting effect on his later pictorial language as an artist. He studied painting and sculpture from 1967 to 1969 at the Brooklyn Museum Art School and with this background does not see himself as a photographer to this day, but as a fine artist. Formative for Serrano’s understanding of art was Marcel Duchamp’s credo that really everything could be art – including photography. It was also photography which brought his artistic breakthrough after initially working as deputy artistic director of an advertising agency. The photographer Alex Harsley presented early pictures by Serrano to the public and more exhibitions followed, often at prestigious locations such as the Cathedral of St. John the Devine in New York.

Artworks with much controversy

Andres Serrano describes himself as a Christian, but regularly causes irritation with his unconventional use of Christian symbols. His artistic provocations also include his most famous work, the picture Piss Christ in which a crucifix can be seen in a urine-filled Plexiglas vessel. As well as religion, it is above all sexuality that coins the work of Andres Serrano: When his picture series The History of Sex was exhibited in a gallery in Swedish Lund, wanton damage was done to the works by a group of vandals attributed to the Swedish neo-Nazi scene. Alongside other artists such as Merry Alpern, Barbara Degenevieve and Robert Mapplethorpe, Serrano stood at the centre of the so-called culture wars of the 1990s when there was intense dispute in the USA about the limits of artistic freedom. Serrano explored these boundaries time and again, including the images of ejaculate, urine and bovine blood he provided for the covers of Metallica’s two albums Load and ReLoad. 

Beyond all expectations and conventions

Andres Serrano also attracted attention with his picture series The Morgue, for which he staged corpses in idiosyncratic ways. He had obtained permission from a coroner but not from the respective relatives and so had to choose the details in such a way that the identity of those photographed could not be recognised. He portrayed members of the notorious Ku-Klux-Klan as well as their burnt victims. In 2013, Serrani gathered 200 signatures from homeless people for his art project Sign of the Times, paying 20 dollars for each signature. He also photographed homeless men and women for his series Residents of New York, whilst another was dedicated to the Native Americans. Nude photography also belongs to Andres Serrano’s oeuvre, but he always chooses models who deviate from the common expectations and ideals of beauty. 

Andres Serrano lives and works in New York.