Leap into the Void, after Yves Klein 1998

Vik Muniz made this work in 1961, and it is after Yves Klein's famous photograph. What I love is the daring act, the leap itself—it's immortalized in a rich, sepia-toned coffee wash. Can you imagine the aroma in Muniz’s studio as he worked? He’s not trying to trick us, but instead, he’s laying bare the layers of artifice and daring inherent in picture-making. The grainy texture and tonal gradations give it a dreamlike quality, blurring the lines between reality and representation. I think of Rauschenberg erasing De Kooning, of Warhol silkscreening soup cans; Muniz is adding another verse to art’s ongoing conversation, and maybe poking fun at it, too. "Leap into the Void, after Yves Klein" encourages us to question the very nature of photography and painting, and the mad courage of artists. It reminds me that every mark, every gesture, is a leap of faith into the unknown.