No. 13 / 20 · Movements, by Gastón Solís
the Deposition
the lowering of the body
Whitechapel, the Annexe · Whitechapel High Street · London · 1982

The gestural torso dissolves into earth and red. A body the painter has refused to finish, because the context already provides everything necessary for a complete understanding.
A deposition is what a lawyer takes, surfacing testimony of prior events. A deposition is what a painter does, laying pigment down on a surface. A deposition is what happens to a king, stripped of his worldly power. And the Deposition, painted by Raphael and Caravaggio, is the lowering of the body before it finally ascends. The word has many acts, all appropriate for this room. Only context distinguishes them.
Provenance
The artist’s studio, London; Marlborough Fine Art, London, by 1980; lent by the above to the Whitechapel Gallery, London, for The Deposition: moments in figurative expression, 14 May — 26 July 1982; private collection, London, 1985–2009; sale, Christie’s London, Modern British and Irish Art, 11 June 2010, lot 134; the present collection, acquired at the above sale.



















