MARC DE ANSAR
1996-2021
As Groucho Marx famously quiped, “Times flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.”
In 1996, I embarked on a 25-year project that concluded on 12/31/21. Every year, I donned a Groucho ”nose and glasses" and enacted Marc De Ansar, my masculine persona. Using the comedic guise, he has poked fun at the formality of the staid traditional portrait. Over time, the disguise, the mask, has remained the same while underneath the masquerade, I/he changed. As my alter-ego, De Ansar has explored issues of gender, identity, sexuality, ethnic stereotypes, humor, and more...not necessarily in that order.
When my husband (Jewish) and I (Gentile) were courting back in 1999, he brought to my attention that the “Groucho” glasses were part of a Vaudeville shtick called “Jewface”—akin to the more notorious Blackface. Although that perfidious stereotype has faded into infamy, in this “woke” age, the wise-cracking con-man is still with us, revivified as our friend Marc. It’s estimated that 70% of entertainment workers in the comedic realm are Jews...hey, waddya gonna do? The “nose and glasses” are so universally recognized as a symbol of humor that they even have been codified with an emoji.
When I began, I had no idea what would transpire, but I knew if I set certain parameters and set to work, time would pass and something certainly would happen. The result is a mixed-media portrait exploration that includes:
BLOG
https://marcdeansar.blogspot.com is a repository for the portrait images with links to the videos, archive/bibliography, and occasional blog posts with ongoing news about this project.
PORTRAITS
Since 1996, I have painted 4 portraits per year for 25 years = 100 portraits on Arches paper 22” x 30.” In 2021, I completed the final portrait and am ready to put Marc to rest.https://marcdeansar.blogspot.com/p/pages.html
2018
VIDEO
Marc has performed, interviewed, enacted 3-5 minutes of video per year. His antics have been videotaped and edited into a series of short vignettes 100+ minutes documenting his artistry. He is, among other things, a champion of tic-tac-toe (ala Duchamp's chess game) and a trickster par excellence. https://marcdeansar.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html
NOTEBOOKS
25 notebooks (one per year) a journal-like accumulation of slides, sketches, articles, research notes plus a collection of “nose and glasses” a la Groucho Marx, including animal glasses, seasonal masks. Plus, I have amassed a collection of nerdy and scholarly ephemera and memorabilia.
A collection of the what, where, when history of the “nose and glasses” is presented as a bibliography of references and as an archive of uses: including book covers, illustrations, posters, variations on the theme. https://marcdeansar.blogspot.com/p/bibliography.html
ART and ART-i-FACTS
Beyond the creation of the paintings and video, Marc's character developed through fabricated stories and found art-i-facts (readymades) that he named as ART. His astute skills as a cunning strategist and sensitive renderer of line and form played out in an odd assembly of the found and hand-made objects that have come to represent De Ansar’s oeuvre.
EXHIBITION
If we know anything as artists, we are in the entertainment business.
To date the Marc De Ansar project has mostly been a private affair. Through the years, there have been occasional rare sightings. But, all in all, it has been kept secret so that Marc could do what he wanted, free from opinions and judgments.
Now, that the project has been put to rest, it is time to reveal of the scope of Marc De Ansar’s character, time to go public with the complexities of his guise and persona.
Yes, the scope and scale of my 25-year project is daunting, with 100+ portraits along with sculptures, books and extensive documentation, making it a challenge to find a space large enough to mount in its entirety.
Given that difficulty, I am curating manageable groupings of artworks. I hope to find a curator or student/scholar interested in helping develop the exhibition phase of my project. Someone interested in delving into these breakout themes:
Picking pronouns and gender identity: they, them, theirs.
Personas, doppelgängers, and the nom de plume.
What’s so funny? Telling jokes. Trying on the nose and glasses humor.
Comparing the alter-egos of Marcel Duchamp’s Rrose de Sélavy and Marc De Ansar.
“LIKE,” Likeness, and the meaning of the portrait.
With Marc De Ansar, I am committed to presenting an immersive and participatory exhibition about the "nose and glasses” that would educate, challenge and inspire.
Thank you for your consideration.
Judith Selby Lang
(415) 279-2014 judith@beachplastic.com
