London

Don Brown, Yoko XII (Twin), 2004, acrylic composite, edition of six. Courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London. ­Photo by Juergen Teller

by PABLO LAFUENTE

Don Brown’s love, Yoko, silenced, homogenized, idealized for the future in seeming perfection.

In his letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man Friedrich, Schiller introduces the statue of Juno Ludovici as an example of a fully completed artistic creation. “It is neither charm nor is it dignity which speaks from the glorious face of the Juno Ludovici; it is neither of these, for it is both at once. While the female god challenges our veneration, the godlike woman at the same times kindles our love.” In its presence, he says, we are “irresistibly carried away and attracted by her womanly charm,” and at the same time “kept off at distance by her godly dignity.” The sculpture’s form, dwelling in space, makes it look…