Juergen Teller, "Paradis," C-print, 2009

JUERGEN TELLER: PARADIS

Lehmann Maupin
540 West 26th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Through October 17
Admission: free
212-255-2923
http://www.lehmannmaupin.com

Last month, a woman was caught running through the Metropolitan Museum of Art naked while being photographed for a continuing project by local artist Zach Hyman, as much about the shock value as the nudity itself. German photographer Juergen Teller takes a very different approach in his gorgeous “Paradis” series, on view at Lehmann Maupin through October 17. Returning to two models he’s worked with before — Raquel Zimmerman, who is in her mid-twenties, and Charlotte Rampling, who, remarkably enough, is in her mid-sixties — the London-based Teller has them pose nude after-hours in the empty Louvre, both alone and together. The two women stand stiffly next to classical Greek statues, their naked flesh countering the white marble. They wait uncomfortably on a circular couch. They relax in front of the Mona Lisa but never smile themselves. The photo shoot, commissioned by French magazine Paradis, turns Zimmerman and Rampling into both object and viewer, museum statuary and museum visitor. Teller supplements the show with photographs of a bodiless male statue, a painting of a crowning of a queen, and a tableaux in which a man is reaching deep within an animal’s sliced stomach, calling into question the nature of beauty and the human form and, more specifically, the depiction of women throughout history. “Paradis” is highly recommended, especially for fans of Rampling, the iconic British star of such films as THE NIGHT PORTER, STARDUST MEMORIES, THE DAMNED, and SWIMMING POOL.