Author Description

Rob Pruitt's Autograph Collection", which will be on display at Luxembourg & Dayan's Savile Row gallery, is one of Pruitt's most ambitious bodies of work in his complex, heterogeneous oeuvre. This body of work began in 1980, when Pruitt, then still in high school, made a special pilgrimage from his home in Washington D.C. to New York City specifically to obtain Woody Allen's autograph. That first moment waiting for Mr. Allen at the stage door of Lincoln Center was the initial event that solidified Pruitt's obsession. After college, during the Pruitt Early collaboration, the practice of collecting autographs was incorporated into the litany of Pruitt Early projects, albeit one that was never exhibited. Pruitt-Early eventually went on to collect autographs by carrying unstretched, raw Belgian linen with them to events and parties for their subjects to sign. Since the 1980s, this vast collection, which has become "The Signature Series," features signatures from well-known individuals, including visual artists, actors, political figures and other people of cultural significance. Pruitt Early never showed their signature series collection while they worked together, and since they disbanded as an artistic entity, Pruitt has continued to amass this autograph collection over the past three decades. While there are over 400 signatures that compose the entire series, this upcoming London presentation will feature a selection of approximately 200 from the series. Since the dawn of modernism and conceptual art, artists have stopped signing the front of their canvases. Pruitt's project responds to this trend by emptying the canvas of all content except for the signature that is drawn on each piece of raw linen. Pruitt's "Autograph Collection" is a snapshot of the past three decades--it reflects our collective desire for authenticity of experience, our bottomless obsession with fame, and the fleeting nature of celebrity. The collection of signatures was recently expanded specifi