"I used a popular symbol, the rainbow, as a vehicle to charm the world with a poem, and as a queer man, I had my personal attachment to the rainbow. We were still impacted by the AIDS crisis at that t.mes , and I felt it was important to make a gay positive public stat.mes nt."
Joyous and assertive, Hell, Yes! is an icon of Ugo Rondinone's bold and diverse oeuvre, which has established his position as one of the internationally best-known artists of his generation. In 1997, when the artist first.mes t his partner and muse, the poet John Giorno, Rondinone began his series of monumental Night Rainbows. Over the coming decades, he produced a limited suite of seventeen luminescent sculptures, including the present work, which serve as triumphant celebrations of love and life. Phrases inspired by quotidian exclamations and pop songs, Rondinone’s Night Rainbows embody pride and positivity through a motif that draws on the artist's queer identity and the natural world. One of Rondinone's most iconic works from this celebrated series, another edition of Hell, Yes! was prominently installed on the exterior of the New Museum from the museum’s opening in 2007 until 2010 and remains in the museums collects ion. Others of his Rainbows have likewise been notably installed on museum exteriors across the world, with We are Poems currently on display at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and Where do We Go From Here? installed at Arken Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen and Life t.mes at the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt.
Public Installations of Ugo Rondinone's Rainbows
All Art © 2022 Ugo Rondinone
The natural ephemerality of life is highlighted by Rondinone’s chosen motif: in nature, a rainbow is fleeting and transitory, yet here it is eternally enduring in neon through night and day. Anchored in his personal experiences with death and loss, Rondinone's Night Rainbows are beaming harbings ers of hope: serving as a beaming stat.mes nt of solidarity, Hell, Yes! shines at night, beckoning viewers from a distance as a universally shared sent.mes nt of unity. In 1988, following the passing of his partner Manfred Kirchner from AIDS, Rondinone sought the motif nature as a source of comfort and solitude, explaining , "I turned away from grief and found a spiritual roadmap for solace, regeneration and inspiration in nature, in nature, you enter a space where the sacred and profane, the mystical and the mundane, vibrate against one another. This new base found in nature would inform my work for the next thirty-three years." (Ugo Rondinone quoted in Laura Hoptman, Erik Verhagen & Nicholas Baume, Ugo Rondinone, New York 2022, p. x) An unmistakable symbol, Rondinone’s Hell, Yes! radiates positivity, a public declaration of queer joy and community, in response to the devastating impact of the AIDs epidemic.
"Although Rondinone is one of the best-known artists of his generation, his work, underpinned by a peculiar poetry and grounded in a subjective, quasi-universal phenomenology, invariably remains both fascinating and poignant."
Within Hell, Yes!, Rondinone elevates a seemingly quotidian phrase to the status of an iconic emblem, imbuing his neon sign with a poetic and enduring significance. In his examination of the enticing language of signage and collects ive culture; Rondinone recalls the tenants of Pop art; a highly recognizable symbol of pride, the rainbow motif here becomes a beacon, a celebration of life itself. As Nicholas Baume, executive director of the Public Art Fund, posits, "Was it advertising? Was it a public-service announcement? Was it happy or sad? Was it American? Was it a comfortingly sent.mes ntal moment of nostalgia or a queer stat.mes nt of mourning, overcoming pain and loss? Or something else? As a work of art, it was none and all of the above, rerouting our familiar perceptual circuitry and inviting an open-ended, personal response." (Ugo Rondinone quoted in Laura Hoptman, Erik Verhagen & Nicholas Baume, Ugo Rondinone, New York 2022, p. x) Poetically captivating, Hell, Yes! evokes an exhilarating response and is a uniquely emphatic example of Rondinone's institutionally acclaimed Night Rainbows.
