Boy with Frog by Charles Ray, Venice

Boy with Frog is an ephemeral sculpture produced by the American artist Charles Ray and is now included as part of the Pinault collection in Venice. This young naked boy reminisces back to the seminal Kouros from ancient Greece, or the Spinario whereby ephebes remove a thorns from their feet. This sculpture, likened to David by Donatello, is full of pride and satisfaction, and the boy seems to take a malicious delight in retaining the frog. Situated at the corner point of Palazzo Grassi, the Boy with Frog is a new symbol of an enigmatic Venice. It incarnates the phase between adolescence and adulthood at a time of emancipation and action. Its state is similar to the statue itself as it is only a short-lived and fragile version of the work. Venice looks forward to welcoming its public version more hardened and sustainable in the near future. It is in good reason to abandon its guards, so that Ray’s work takes flight in a public domain, a little farther from authority. Photo Olivier Zahm Text Pierre-Alexandre Mateos