Superman

Superman

Artist: Nick Veasey

Nick Veasey’s Superman takes the original superhero, hands planted on hips, cape falling behind him, and renders the invulnerable suddenly transparent. Veasey’s X-ray dissolves the suit to reveal the skull and skeleton beneath, the famous crest hovering ghostlike over the ribcage. The most powerful figure in popular culture is shown, with gentle irony, as bone and frame like everyone else.

The contradiction is the heart of the piece. Here is a character defined by a body that cannot be broken, depicted through a technology designed to look inside broken ones, and Superman lets that tension speak. By exposing the man of steel as flesh and bone, Veasey quietly punctures the fantasy of invincibility and asks what we project onto our heroes in the first place. There is affection in it as much as wit: the icon endures precisely because, underneath the cape, we recognise something of ourselves. It is pop culture and memento mori folded into a single, knowing image.

Rendered with Veasey’s characteristic clarity, the cape, the crest and the figure read together in a single luminous layer. The piece is made for a media room, study or any interior with a love of pop culture, and speaks to collectors drawn to comics, contemporary art and conceptual photography. Blending science, photography and fine art, Superman is produced as a strictly limited edition.
Sizes:

84.1 cm × 84.1 cm (33 × 33 in)
Edition of 15
59.4 cm × 59.4 cm (23 × 23 in)
Edition of 25

Prices:

The largest 47 × 47 in edition is sold out. All works framed ChromaLuxe. UK GBP prices include VAT.

Size: large

From $9,425

Currently Available