An Artist in the Secular World

Abstract

This essay reassesses Paul Thek’s best known work, the Technological Reliquaries series, commonly referred to as the Meat Pieces (1964–67), which are wax-based mixed-media sculptural works that imitate mutilated flesh in gory, viscous details. While they are generally understood as Thek’s “hot” answer to “cold” Pop and Minimal art, I read them through the lens of a religious visual culture that dislodges the hold of unique, individual authorship and suggests a model of authorship that defers to the sacred chain of meaning through contact. This framework is prompted by Thek’s own account of his struggle to “serve two masters”: religion and secular modern art. In theorizing Thek’s attempt to work through this internal conflict, exacerbated by his queer sexuality, the essay also opens up new avenues of inquiry for thinking about religious faith in modern art.