Lady Gaga: Mademoiselle Caroline Riviere

Robert Wilson
United States of America
1941

Michael Galasso, composer
United States of America
1949 – 2009

Lady Gaga: Mademoiselle Caroline Riviere
2013
single chanel HD video with sound, looped
Currently on display, Gallery 16
Place made
London
Medium
single chanel HD video with sound, looped
State
2/3
Dimensions
112.89 x 72.37 cm (screen)
Credit line
Prudence Lee Bequest Fund 2023
Accession number
20241MV1
Signature and date
Not signed. Not dated.
Provenance
Created by Robert Wilson, London, 2013; [Visual Art + Science, Champaign, 2023]; acquired by the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2023.
Collection area
International moving image

  • Amongst the portraits Lady Gaga and Wilson selected was that of Mademoiselle Caroline Rivière (1806)  by the French neoclassical artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. An official in the Napoleonic regime, in 1805 Caroline’s father commissioned Ingres to paint portraits of himself and his wife and a portrait of his teenage daughter the following year. Caroline died within a year of the portrait’s completion. Wilson’s homage to Ingres introduces a single tear, which rolls down Lady Gaga’s cheek, and a snow goose, flying across the serene sky, alluding to the brevity and beauty of life.

    Leigh Robb, Curator of Contemporary Art