The Art Newspaper

Washing, a small photograph made in 1972 by Tony Morgan at Thomas Dane gallery (2.1/M15)

Forget Rorschach, some infinitely more complex psychological profiling is taking place with various responses to Washing, a small photograph made in 1972 by Tony Morgan at Thomas Dane gallery (2.1/M15). While there is no doubt that the body is of a lissom young male (in fact, the artist) in the process of some vigorous ablutions, an ambiguity arises around the head and shoulders. Those of an optimistic mien see angels’ wings sprouting from the shoulder blades, the art historically inclined see a homoerotic spin on the Odalisques of Ingres, while more melancholic souls read the head of a black dog emerging from an empty bucket. Whatever the reading, this work, along with Morgan’s hilariously repellent reverse life cycle of a beefsteak, Resurrection, 1968, on view in Art Unlimited (U27), have marked out the hitherto little-known English artist (who died in Geneva in 2004) as one of the most talked about discoveries of this year’s fair.

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