About the work
Shown in Margiela's first exhibition in Germany, Back isolates a single, familiar fragment of furniture: the curved back of a chair, its dark brown shell framing a pale, upholstered surface. Cropped and presented frontally against a neutral ground, the everyday object takes on an almost sculptural, bodily presence – the chair back as a stand-in for the absent sitter – echoing the attention to form, surface and anonymity that has run through the artist's practice since his years in fashion.
