CONTEMPORARY ART 12 & 13 NOVEMBER
CONTEMPORARY ART
2009 N EW YOR K NY 010 4 0 9/ NY 010 5 0 9
W W W. P H I L L I P S D E P U RY.C O M
12 & 13
NOVEMBER
2009
NEW YORK
Front Cover Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Nets (T.W.A.), 2000, Lot 9 (detail) Title Page Olafur Eliasson, 1m3 light, 1999, Lot 5 Back Cover Andy Warhol, Brillo Box, 1964, Lot 16 (detail)
PART I CONTEMPORARY ART 12
NOVE MBER
2009
7p m
NE W YO RK
LOTS 1- 42 Viewing Saturday 7 November 10am – 6pm Sunday 8 November 12pm – 6pm Monday 9 November 10 am – 6pm Tuesday 10 November 10 am – 6pm Wednesday 11 November 10am – 6pm Thursday 12 November 10am – 12pm
1
GUYTON \ WALKER b. 1972 and 1969 Untitled (from the series Guyton \ Walker: Empire Strikes Back), 2006 Silkscreen and digital inkjet print on canvas. 48 1/8 x 36 in. (122.2 x 91.4 cm).
Estimate $ 2 0 , 0 0 0 - 3 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Greene Naftali Gallery, New York
Guyton \ Walker’s project affirms not only the collapse of aesthetic judgment but capitalism’s cool indifference to the meanings and values it circulates—as long as these obey the law of exchange and produce a surplus. Guyton \ Walker produce surplus with the surplus they appropriate, as if to say that everything- including history, art, the very idea of the subject—is surplus today, constantly recycled for profit or pleasure. J. Kelsey, “Reviews: Guyton \ Walker,” Artforum, May 2005, p. 249 The collaborative genius of Wade Guyton and Kelley Walker as seen in the present lot, Untitled (from the series Guyton \ Walker: Empire Strikes Back), 2006 demonstrates the power of both talents in creating a work with a perverse twist. The juxtaposition of the silkscreened text of the Ketel One vodka ad and the knife cutting across the canvas reveal how Guyton \ Walker accept, and at the same time reject consumerist society. The knife stands out from the white painted background of the canvas in a threatening way as if to challenge the viewer’s role in society and whether he/she will succumb to the pressures of commercial culture. In the eyes of Guyton \ Walker, we are all victims of the system.
2
DASH SNOW 1981 -2009 Polaroid Wall, 2005 20 c-prints. 20 x 20 in. (50.8 x 50.8 cm) each. Polaroid Wall is a unique work.
Estimate $ 4 0 , 0 0 0 - 6 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Deitch Projects, New York EXHIBITED Royal Academy of Arts, USA Today, October 6 - November 4, 2006 LITERATURE Royal Academy Publications, ed., USA Today, London, 2006, p. 355
(illustrated)
The present lot is an installation of twenty c-prints Dash Snow
I’ve had so many adventures with Dash I just can’t even remember
created from enlargements of his Polaroid film photographs. This
them all… Driving down one-way streets in Milan at 100 miles an hour,
is the only work comprised of a set of multiple photographs that the
blasting “I Did It My Way” in a white van. Wearing matching pink agnès
artist has produced.
b. suits to my first art show in LA. Finishing all the drugs with him until the sun was up. Finding new and innovative ways to cover windows with towels, bed sheets, and newspapers so the night could last forever.
Like Ryan McGinley or Nan Goldin, who have also chronicled the
And bathroom after bathroom after bathroom. Why do I remember the
downtown Manhattan scene, Snow takes a romantic approach and
bathrooms the most?
participates completely in the moments he documents, which ensures that his photographs do not collapse into voyeurism. Although the
Heroin, oh heroin, oh heroin. Taken the lives of so many great artists.
Polaroids are taken in the heart of the moment—depicting life as it
Taken so many of my friends’ lives. I don’t know if you’re not supposed
happens—Snow pays as much attention to their formal composition as
to write about drugs when one of your friends dies of an overdose, but
to their content. Overtly nihilistic images are resuscitated by their colors,
those are all my memories of Dash. Drug and alcohol induced memories.
as in the bright red blood drenching the bleached white face of a friend
It’s always been a bottle of Jack, a bag of coke, and some beers. And lots
after a fight. Snow presents himself in the mythologized role of artist/
of bathrooms. That was just our relationship. That’s what our lives were.
outlaw, and another romantic theme evident in his work is an obsession
Adventures on drugs. And it’s what eventually led him to his death.
with the precariousness of life. Polaroids are themselves a finite medium, and Snow’s are often smudged and tarnished from being carried around
One of my favorite things about Dash was always his unconscious
in his pocket, echoing the fragility of the moments he captures.
moving hand. He would be sitting there smoking cigarettes, writing his
C. Iles and P. Vergne, “Dash Snow,” Whitney Biennal 2006—Day for
tag in the air without being aware of it. I would just smile and watch the
Night, New York, 2006, p. 330
smoke twirl into the letters S A C E. That’s how I’ll always remember him. R .McGinley, “Remembering Dash Snow,” Vice Magazine, New York, July 2009
3 MARK HANDFORTH b. 1969 American Tristar, 2004 Fluorescent lights. 150 x 150 in. (381 x 381 cm). This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.
Estimate $ 1 0 0 , 0 0 0 -1 5 0 , 0 0 0 Provenance Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York
Exemplary of Mark Handforth’s sense of playful wit, the present lot is a striking installation of fluorescent lights that animates its surrounding space. Handforth has developed his noteworthy oeuvre on an ethic of challenging the conventions of sculpture. The present lot references the aesthetic of Dan Flavin, while addressing the innate romance of glowing light and the expansive symbolism of a radiating star. Mark Handforth possesses the increasingly rare ability to make sculptures that engage the eye, the body, and the mind. With an incisive wit and visual sophistication, the Miami-based artist pairs the handmade with appropriated everyday objects, making subtle alternations and juxtapositions to reference modernist design, Minimalist sculpture, street subcultures, and roadside Americana… The result is an art that, as Whitney Biennial curator Debra Singer writes, is “equal parts suburban alienation and modernist transcendence.” B. Sholis, “Essay: Mark Handforth,” published in the catalogue accompanying the exhibition “Terminal Five,” 2004
4
ROBERT LONGO b. 1953 Untitled (Damien), 2007 Charcoal on paper. 70 x 70 in. (177.8 x 177.8 cm). Initialed and dated “RL 2007” on the reverse.
Estimate $ 1 2 0 , 0 0 0 -1 8 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Metro Pictures, New York EXHIBITED New York, Metro Pictures, Robert Longo: Children of Nyx, November
3 - December 8, 2007
Robert Longo has built his career by challenging the boundaries of diverse mediums and thus elevating common cultural imagery to an epic realm. However, it is his graphic style of drawing for which he has garnered his reputation as a leading contemporary artist. Dramatic and velvety, these works, such as the present lot, blur the line between drawing and painting. The present lot is a part of Longo’s ongoing series that aligns his individual works with the idea of a sublime monolith; it is a monument to the spiritual history of the image. The flawless, sleeping baby reminds us of the purity of birth. Its vulnerability evokes a powerful emotion of sympathy that transgresses societal boundaries—it is both a universal symbol and a personal icon. The dense layerings of charcoal from which the images are constructed reveal unexpected shades and tonalities of black, running from cold to warm… Robert Longo is a deeply moral artist, and if his works are not religious in the usual sense they are deeply moving exercises in enlightenment. D. Galloway, “Provocative Visions of the Apocalypse” The New York Times, September 25, 2009
5
OLAFUR ELIASSON b. 1967 1m3 light, 1999 Halogen lamps, steel stands and fog machine. 39 3/8 x 39 3/8 x 39 3/8 in. (100 x 100 x 100 cm). This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.
Estimate $ 3 0 0 , 0 0 0 - 5 0 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Private collection, New York EXHIBITED Graz, Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Surroundings
Surrounded, April 1 - May 21, 2000; Karlsruhe, ZKM Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Surroundings Surrounded, May 31 - August 26, 2001; New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Olafur Eliasson: Take Your Time, April 20 June 30, 2008 LITERATURE P. Weibel, ed., Olafur Eliasson: Surroundings Surrounded; Essays on
Space and Science, Cambridge/London, 2001, p. 471 (illustrated); M. Grynstein, D. Birnbaum, and M. Sparks, Olafur Eliasson, London/New York, 2002, p. 40 (illustrated); H. Broeker, ed., Olafur Eliasson: Your Lighthouse; Works with Light 1991-2004, Ostfildern-Ruit, 2004, p. 99, pl. 47 (illustrated); C. Diehl, “Northern Lights,” Art in America, New York, October 2004, p. 113 (illustrated); O. Eliasson & G. Orskou, ed., Olafur Eliasson: Minding the World, Ostfildern-Ruit, 2004, p. 206 (illustrated); O. Eliasson, ed., Olafur Eliasson: Your Engagement has Consequences; On the Relativity of Your Reality, Baden, 2006, p. 178 (illustrated); V. Vienne, “Optical Magic,” Metropolis Magazine, New York, May 2006; M. Grynsztejn, ed., Take Your Time: Olufur Eliasson, London 2007, pl. 97 (illustrated); S. Psyllos, “Reviewed: Olafur Eliasson,” NY Arts, New York, 2008 (illustrated); P. Schjeldahl, “Unclutted: An Olafur Eliasson Retrospective,” The New Yorker, April 28, 2008; Studio Olafur Eliasson, ed., Studio Olafur Eliasson: An Encyclopedia, Cologne, 2008, p. 290 (illustrated) Photo: Jens Ziehe 2004 © Olafur Eliasson 1999
Larry Bell b. 1939, Cube, 1966, Los Angeles County Museum of Art Photo: Digital Image © 2009 Museum Associates / LACMA / Art Resource, NY
What arise in Eliasson’s works are striking connections between visible
gingerly about the use of his objects, but he takes care that they
phenomena and invisible laws governing the world of substances and
appear as utilitarian as possible. While well designed, these
materials. Objects and spaces appear all at once to be extremely tangible,
objects do not attract for their own sake, but for the contribution
available to the senses and most decidedly abstract, as if they were a
they make to the environment he has constructed,” (C. Diehl,
result of human intellect’s autonomous equations. Plato’s distinction
“Northern Lights,” Art in America, New York, October 2004, p. 111).
between the perfect world of Ideas and phenomena’s imperfect world of
Should the viewer want, they could examine the full mechanics
pale appearances—which is fundamental to philosophical idealism’s
behind the 1m3 light, as every bulb, wire, and clamp is there for
divide between idea and matter—is broken up here.
full view. However, it is this purposeful transparency created by
C. Thau, “The Structure from Within and from Without,” Olafur
the artist that reinforces the integrity of the structure, so one is
Eliasson: Minding the World, Ostfildern-Ruit, 2004, p. 69
not distracted by the technical equipment involved, but takes it in
In the present lot, phenomenal artist Olafur Eliasson takes the
discusses this well conceived choice:
as part of the passage into the experience of 1m3 light. The artist Modernist concept of the cube to an entirely new realm. Not only does he push the idea of artistic medium by utilizing technology,
If we should look at this as a kind of sequence, there is a certain
but with the intangible element of light creates the Platonic Ideal
narrative buildup in the sense that you are not simply confronted with
of a cube. His brave proposition requires that the viewer suspend
phenomena such as light effects or light play. You pass by the lamps,
their mundane way of seeing the world to engage with a form both
and only then do you arrive at the phenomena. It’s as if I would ask a
present and fleeting.
cinema audience to walk through the projection room before sitting down to see the film. And since the lamps I use are often placed
Comprised of twenty-four halogen lamps, steel stands and a fog
on tripods or some kind of construction like that, they are generally
machine, the present lot utilizes utilitarian materials to create
quite utilitarian-looking. Still—and this is perhaps because their
the sublime glow of a cubed meter of light. “Eliasson is not at all
functionality is so stark and so extreme—people tend to ignore them
Donald Judd (1928 - 1994) Untitled, 1968. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photo: Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art / Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY. Art © Judd Foundation. Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
Sol LeWitt (1928 - 2007), Open Cube, 1968. Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany. Photo: Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz / Art Resource, NY. © 2009 The LeWitt Estate/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
and immediately focus on whatever it is that they project. However,
create primary structures of pure integral forms, the cube brings
I would all the same argue that if we imagine that the lamp had been
to mind Larry Bell, Sol LeWitt, Tony Smith, Robert Morris and
placed behind a wall, and that there was a hole in the wall where
Donald Judd. In the present lot, Eliasson is able to both give
the light would come through so that the projection would just be
reverence to this lineage of artists as well as point out what they
presented without the lamp being visibly present, there would be less
missed by changing the matter of evaluation from one of analyzing
time in the work, in the sense that we’ve just discussed. And you would
form to engaging in an experience. Though he utilizes the shape
have a situation where people would on the one hand experience the
iconized by his forebearers, there is actually no cube there at all
phenomena and on the other hand maybe wonder about how they were
just a moment when light meets fog.
produced. This would, as I see it, take away the possibility to engage with the very construction of sense-perception (rather than with the
Having been greatly influenced by the work of Robert Irwin, Eliasson
technical magic behind projections)—the possibility to evaluate not just
considers his overriding concern to be an awareness of the act of
what we see but also how we see it. The great thing about lamps—as
perception (“seeing yourself seeing”). However, by introducing
opposed to for instance film or video projections of the same type of
elements such as temperature and humidity, as well as a more overt
phenomena—is that they facilitate this type of evaluation.
disruption of physical orientation, he goes even further to show how
“A Conversation Between Ina Blom and Olafur Eliasson,” Olafur
not only the eye, but also the rest of the body, responds to various
Eliasson: Your Engagement has Consequences; On the Relativity of
stimuli—in addition to the emotional and intellectual reactions one
Your Reality, Baden, 2006, p. 175
might have when anticipating, discovering and experiencing a new or altered situation. Eliasson’s work often involves an intervention which
The form created by these lamps in the fog filled room, a golden
either takes its cue from its surroundings or imposes upon them
cube hovering above the ground, has a long standing important
constructions that affect them in some way.
position in art history. Inextricably linked to artists who emerged
Ibid, New York, 2004, p. 109
in the 1960’s under the umbrella of Minimalism who sought to
Richard Serra b. 1939, The Cube (for Charlie Chaplin), 1977 Photo: Jens Ziehe. © 2009 Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
6
FELIX GONZALEZ-TORRES 1957-1996 “Untitled,” 1994 Five gelatin silver prints in artist’s frame. 25 1/2 x 32 7/8 in. (64.8 x 83.5 cm) each; 25 1/2 x 176 3/8 in. (64.8 x 448 cm) overall. This work is from an edition of two plus one artist’s proof. A Certificate of Authenticity issued by The Felix GonzalezTorres Foundation in 2009 will accompany this work.
Estimate $ 2 5 0 , 0 0 0 - 3 5 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York; Lambert Art Collection, Geneva EXHIBITED Hannover, Sprengel Museum, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, June 1 - August
24, 1997 (another example exhibited); Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Felix GonzalezTorres, September 6 - November 16, 1997 (another example exhibited); Esslingen, Villa Merkel, Galerie der Stadt Esslingen am Neckar, Photography as Concept: 4th International Foto-Triennale, June 28 - September 6, 1998 (another example exhibited); Vienna, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Felix GonzalezTorres, September 12 - November 1, 1998 (another example exhibited); Seattle, Henry Art Gallery, the University of Washington, June 14 - September 21, 2003; West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art, October 18 - December 28, 2003; Tampa Museum of Art, January 25 - April 11, 2004; and Chicago Cultural Center, April 24 June 27, 2004, Crosscurrents at Century’s End: Selections from the Neuberger Berman Art Collection (another example exhibited); San Francisco, Fraenkel Gallery, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, April 1 - May 29, 2004 LITERATURE N. Spector, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, New York, 1995, p. 40 (detail
illustrated); D. Elger, ed., Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Catalogue Raisonné, Ostfildern-Ruit, 1997; p. 133, no. 266 (illustrated); M. Danoff and H. L. Steiger, ed., Crosscurrents at Century’s End: Selections From the Neuberger Berman Art Collection, New York, 2003, pp. 48, 49 (illustrated)
As an artist whose work exemplifies understatement, Gonzalez-Torres employs an extreme economy of visual means for the dual purposes of enticing and challenging his viewers. The seduction occurs at the level of its pure formal beauty; the simple elegance of the work invites contemplation, even reverie. “Beauty” he claims, “is a power we should reinvest with our own purpose.” The work’s provocation lies in its seeming open-endedness, its refusal to assert a closure of meaning. N. Spector, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, New York, 1995, p. 17 In the present lot, Felix Gonzalez-Torres creates a poetic meditation on the beauty, fragility and fleeting nature of life. Each of the five framed gelatin silver prints that comprise this work contains images of different groupings of birds, so small, and almost overexposed, that they nearly disappear into the infinite sky they inhabit, in a move between being individual entities and a part of the whole. The openness of these images invites a myriad of readings from the viewers who the artist invites to complete the piece by projecting their own thoughts onto the spare compositions.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres “Untitled” (Last Light), 1993
(detail)
¨
7
JEFF KOONS b. 1955 Ice Bucket, 1986 Stainless steel. 9 1/4 x 7 x 12 in. (23.5 x 17.8 x 30.5 cm). This work if form an edition of three plus one artist’s proof.
Estimate $ 2 0 0 , 0 0 0 - 3 0 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Sonnabend Gallery, New York; Private collection, Europe EXHIBITED London, Faggionato Fine Arts, Object/Sculpture/Object, October
9 - November24, 2000; London, Gimpel Fils, The (Ideal) Home Show, July 11 September 8, 2001; New York, Dickinson Roundell Inc., Aftershock: The Legacy of the Readymade in Post-War and Contemporary American Art, May 5 - June 20, 2003 LITERATURE R. Rosenblum, ed., The Jeff Koons Handbook, London/New York,
1992, p. 157; A. Muthesius, Jeff Koons, Taschen, Cologne, 1992, no. 14, p. 77 (illustrated); Dickinson Roundell, Inc., ed., Aftershock: The Legacy of the Readymade in Post-War and Contemporary American Art, New York, p. 87 (illustrated)
The present lot from the series Luxury and Degradation reveals Jeff Koons’s ability to transform an otherwise banal common object into a sharp witted social critique. At first glance the ice bucket—an object most commonly found in any standard hotel (and even motel) room— holds no visual significance. However, with minimal implications Koons yields an abstraction that forces the viewer to think about the underlying function of the ice bucket. Cast in stainless steel and polished to mirror-like finish the ice bucket gives off a resonance of opulence and wealth. One cannot help but mistake the work for being cast in pure silver. Its association to alcohol radiates allusions of glamorous cocktail parties the earthly pleasures thereof. Yet, at its core function the object is simply designed to contain ice. I wanted to show how luxury and abstraction are used to debase people and take away their economic and political power. A. Muthesius, ed., Jeff Koons, Cologne, 1992, p. 21
8
RICHARD PRINCE b. 1949 Untitled (four women with their backs to the camera), 1980 Set of four Ektacolor photographs. 20 x 24 in. (50.8 x 61 cm) each. This work is from an edition of ten and numbered of ten on a label adhered to the reverse of each frame.
Estimate $ 4 0 0 , 0 0 0 - 6 0 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York EXHIBITED Basel, Museum f端r Gegenwartskunst, Richard Prince: Photographs,
December 8, 2001 - February 24, 2002 LITERATURE C. Haenlein, Richard Prince: Photographs 1977 - 1993, Hanover,
1994, pp. 40 - 41 (illustrated); Museum f端r Gegenwartskunst, ed., Richard Prince: Photographs, Basel, 2002, pp. 52-53 (illustrated); Rosetta Brooks, ed., Richard Prince, London, 2003, pp. 46-47 (illustrated)
Richard Prince is best known for reinventing images from Pop
In the present lot, Untitled (four women with their backs to the camera),
Culture’s omnipresent world of advertising. His experience in the
1980, four mystifying women deny us access to their faces, their
magazine world in the mid-seventies surrounded him with the glossy
character, their person. This work is an antithesis to the others
and alluring, repetitive and seductive prints that saturated the
produced in this series, which reveal the women’s faces, or their
world’s journals and periodicals. The prevalent and pervasive images
hands, their hats, and their gloves. This lot is Richard Prince’s raison
of American heroes and starlets aroused his interest and propelled
d’être, his conclusion to mass media and its exploitive nature. The
him to question the images’ limitations and potential. He slowly
women turn in protest, refusing to be revealed and exposed, denying
began to appropriate the familiar images, bathing them in new light
stereotypes and “sameness,” ultimately claiming their autonomy. The
and commencing an entirely new discourse on media. The marketing
present lot is not only emblematic of Prince’s work, but it is a greater
of the Marlborough Man and the Hollywood stars fascinated him and
statement on the principle which he is exposing. These women do
he uncovered and revealed the marketing strategies pushing the
not want to be photographed. They are not objects which can be
icons, exposing their solitude and only purpose as entertainer in an
serialized like a mass produced item on a shelf. Richard Prince takes
industry obsessed with performance.
the mission of Pop Art, blurring the line between consumer object and fine art, to a new level, revealing a never before considered layer
To the hurried viewer, Prince’s alterations and appropriations
of political and social consciousness and reality.
are undetectable, but there is in fact a dramatic and crucial transformation. He was an editor, selecting the images carefully to
This lot is a counter-statement to the Pop Art movement that made
be re-photographed. The transformations created strange effects,
icons out of faces. The four women who turn their backs could be the
ranging from softened clarity to magnified ambiguity. Once this
protests of Warhol’s Liz, Jackie, Liza, and Marilyn. Warhol’s greatness
stage was complete, he turned the images into framed art work,
was marked by his mission to expose the caricatures culture created
displacing them from their original pages of a magazine, and thus,
out of real people. Prince activates a return to the exact reality
entirely reinventing them. Lastly, he paired the images in a serial
Warhol blurred. The images compel us to consider the mechanics by
fashion, demanding a kind of narrative to follow along the frames.
which they were produced and the incentive of the image-dominant
Serial images serve as a kind of drill, reminding the viewer over and
culture in which they exist. Suddenly our relationship to stereotyped
over again of its stereotype and truths. Prince created an archive of
images of the everyday comes into focus. “I think art is one of the real
sameness, “By approximating the look of commercial photography,
things to me, because it is one of the few things that make me feel
reproducing the process by which the images were originally
good. It is something I can exchange my life for. And it allows me to
produced—directing, manipulating, and retouching pictures that
share experiences. It suggests a way of continuity, too. It was done in
had already been subjected to these adjustments—Prince functions
the past and it is still alive. That’s why I do not ask myself how real my
as a simulator, exposing the artifice that has invaded out sense of
life is. But how real is my art, that is the question.” (Richard Prince
reality.” (L. Phillips, “People Keep Asking: An Introduction,” Richard
interviewed by Noemi Smolik, 1994).
Prince, New York, 1992)
O
9
YAYOI KUSAMA b. 1929 Infinity Nets (T.W.A.), 2000 Acrylic on canvas. 76 1/4 x 102 in. (194 x 260 cm). Signed, titled and dated “Yayoi Kusama Infinity Nets (T.W.A.) 2000” on the reverse.
Estimate $ 3 0 0 , 0 0 0 - 4 0 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE OTA Fine Arts, Tokyo
With it’s awe-inspiring expanse of white, labor-intensive intricate
Kusama discusses the separation from her work to the other
and hypnotizing monochrome thick brushstroke loop repetitions, the
movements at the time of her development in an interview with
present lot is a mesmerizing composition from the artist’s Infinity
Akira Tatehata:
Nets; a series that has spanned almost all of the artist’s career. Kusama has described obsession with the use of this pattern as a
AK: Still, these works motivated by your interior necessity are considered
means of self-annihilation, however, her unceasing ability to create
to be precursors of Minimal and Pop Art. Although what people say may
sublime beauty with this pattern is a re-affirmation of her persona.
be of no concern to you, it is a fact in terms of chronology.
It has been said of many artists that they are inseparable from their work, but never has that been more literally and visually true than
YK: In 1960 one of my Infinity Nets paintings, Composition, 1959, was
with Kusama. As the artist, who even often dresses herself to blend
included in Udo Kultermann’s exhibition ‘Monochrome Maleriei’ at the
in to her paintings, has brought this intensely personal signature,
Städtisched Museum in Leverkusen, Germany. Mark Rothko and myself
which is linked to her very psychological make-up, to become “her
were the only two artists from America invited to paricipate. I made an
alter ego, her logo, her franchise and her weapon of incursion into
inquiry as to why and how I was chosen and learned that the curator
the world at large. The countless artworks that she has produced
saw an article in Arts Magazine that discussed my work as black-and-
and that carry Kusama’s nets into the world, when seen as a whole,
white painting.
are the mere results of a rigorously disciplined and single-minded performance that has lasted for almost fifty years” (L. Hoptman, Yayoi
AK: You yourself did not think that you were making monochrome works?
Kusama, London, 2000, p. 34). YK: No. People made it up after the fact. My Infinity Net paintings Yayoi Kusama was born in Matsumoto City, Japan in 1929 and she
and Accumulation works had different origins from the European
passed her crucial years of early adolescence while her country was
monochrome works. They were about an obsession: infinite repetition.
at war. During this time. Kusama recollects experiencing her first
In the 1960s, I said: ‘I feel as if I were driving on the highways or carried
hallucinations that have plagued her throughout her life. During these
on a conveyor belt without ending until my death. This is like continuing
hallucinations Kusama sees the world broken up into patterns or
to drink thousands of cups of coffee or eating thousands of feet of
completely covered in dots. Kusama credits these hallucinations as
macaroni… I am deeply terrified by the obsessions crawling over my
being a source for her artistic vision and the genesis of the Infinity Nets.
body, whether they come from within me or from outside. I fluctuate between feelings of reality and unreality’
Kusama was trained in Nihonga painting, a rigorous formal style developed during the Meiji period (1868-1912) that combines
AK: Your obsession with repetition signals both desire and the need to
traditional Japanese techniques and materials with nineteenth-
escape. However, you also added: ‘In the gap between people and the
century European representative subject matter. By 1950 she began
strange jungle of civilized society lie many psychosomatic problems.
to experiment with more abstracted natural forms and in the years
I am deeply interested in the background of problems involved in the
that followed started to develop the patterns of the Infinity Nets from
relationship of people and society. My artistic expressions always grow
motifs based on natural observation into autonomous abstraction.
from the aggregation of these.’
Attracted by the experimental promise of the postwar international
YK: Yes
art scene, Kusama moved to New York City in 1958. As a young artist in New York, Kusama produced her first astonishing Infinity Net
“Yayoi Kusama Akira Tatehata in conversation,” Press Play:
paintings, vast canvases entirely covered in rhythmic undulations
Contemporary Artists in Conversation, London, 2005, p. 426
of small, thickly painted loops, in 1959. The inherent philosophical paradox of these paintings—that “infinity” could be quantified and constrained within the arbitrary structure of a readymade canvas— combined with the more subjective and obsessional implications of their process, distinguish these works from Minimalist abstraction, which would dominate the New York art scene several years later. The mesmerizing, transcendent space of the Nets was further reinforced by Kusama’s own insistent psychosomatic associations to her paintings.
10
GILBERT & GEORGE b. 1943 and 1942 Spell of Sweating, 1998 Hand colored photographs in fifteen parts in artist’s frames. 89 x 125 in. (226 x 317 cm). Signed and dated “Gilbert & George 1998” lower right panel.
Estimate $ 1 8 0 , 0 0 0 - 2 5 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles EXHIBITED Milton Keynes, Milton Keynes Gallery, Rudimentary Pictures, October
8, 1999 - January 9, 2000; Los Angeles, Gagosian Gallery, Rudimentary Pictures, February 3 - March 11, 2000; Lisbon, Centro Cultural de Belém, A Arte de Gilbert & George, January 11 - April 15, 2002 LITERATURE M. Bracewell and D. Sylvester, Gilbert & George: Rudimentary
Pictures, London, 1999, n.p. cover (illustrated); Centro Cultural de Belém, ed., A Arte de Gilbert & George, Lisbon, 2002, n.p. (illustrated); Gilbert & George, ed., Gilbert & George: The Complete Pictures 1971-2005, Volume 2, New York, 2007, pp. 675, 958 (illustrated)
Gilbert met George in 1967 while studying at St. Martins School of Art. The subversive duo has ceaselessly been making provocative and progressive art since. They are not artists, but an artist. From the beginning of their collaboration, their mission was to turn themselves into ‘living sculptures,’ sacrificing their individual identities for the kind of art they deemed creative. “Art for All” is their manifesto, but they also believe that everything has the potential to be art itself, addressing social and political issues, controversies, taboos, and artistic conventions, drawing inspiration from their lives in London’s East End. Their trademark work is a kind of grid, a larger picture broken down into sections that then become unified again in a new way through the use of recognizable signs and images. In the present lot, Spell of Sweating, 1998, the grid instills an order that enables the mind to break down and understand what is presented. The deconstruction of the grid sorts the interrelationships of the images, and then reconnects them again as a whole, like a map. The grid creates individual frames around the parts that tell the story; their heads, their torsos, the sweat that binds them as they hold each other’s hand. The black circles surrounding the beads of sweat allude to magnified images, turning the fundamentals of the human body into a map of human existence. This system is a realization of an underlying order, a reflection of truth, their personal honesty. Always side by side, Gilbert & George immortalize their love in art. Spell of Sweating is from a series entitled “Rudimentary Pictures,” all of which are maps of London with magnified images of blood, sweat, urine, sperm, or tears, revealing the essential functions of life and love. Speaking about The Rudimentary Pictures, Gilbert & George have said: “They deal with the thoughts and feelings that lie within us all and with the issues that confront us daily. Our cities, your tears, their money, the rain, our sexuality, your sweat, their views are all in The Rudimentary Pictures.” (Gilbert & George: The Rudimentary Pictures, London, 1999).
11
LARRY BELL b. 1939 Untitled, 1972 Two plate glass panels coated with Inconel. 69 3/4 x 67 1/4 x 69 1/4 in. (177.2 x 170.8 x 175.9 cm) installed dimensions.
Estimate $ 1 5 0 , 0 0 0 - 2 0 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Marlborough Gallery, Rome EXHIBITED Pasadena Art Museum, Larry Bell, April 11 - June 11, 1972; Rome,
Marlborough Gallery, Larry Bell, June - August 1974 LITERATURE Marlborough Gallery, ed., Larry Bell, Rome, 1974, pl. 13 (illustrated);
S. Montealegre, Transparente: Larry Bell, Teodosio Magnoni, Samuel Montealegre, Bolsena, 1990, p. 20 (illustrated)
Larry Bell first became interested in glass while working at a frame
This desire to purify his sculptures to their most interesting point led
shop as a student. During his free time there he would create
to the creation of the present lot. Comprised of two panes of coated
assemblages out of the discarded glass and shadowboxes. “I liked
glass, the form opens up from a single intersection as if to invite the
using the glass in those little constructions I had done in my picture
viewer inside what was once closed off as a cube. This deceptively
framing job. As I became more involved with the use of the material
simplified form provides elaborate interplays of planar interface.
in these constructions, I realized that the surface quality was different
Viewed from one angle the sculpture’s structure is clear, but with
from anything else I had been familiar with. The surface was hard,
a slight move the planes reflect off of each other and it is unclear
reflective, transparent, and it was possible to make it all of those
how many panes of glass you are looking at, what is reflection and
things at one time… And the fact that mirrors could contain the
what is reality. Larry Bell achieves this amazing mix of luminosity
depth of whatever they reflected was something that was intriguing,
and reflection by coating the planes of glass himself with delicately
although I wasn’t quite clear about what that meant. But the surface
modulated mists of metal. The artist discovered this process in a
qualities of the glass seemed full of potential for me to use.” (Larry
New York factory and had a machine built so he could reproduce
Bell from, Larry Bell: works from New Mexico, Lyon, 1989, p. 16)
the effect himself in his studio. The coating allows reflected and refracted light to change the color of the glass depending on the
From his experiments with glass at the shop, Bell’s work developed
light source and vantage point. As viewers move around the work
towards his signature cubes. “I had been painting pictures of cubes,
the hue shifts, changes intensity and even disappears completely.
so I decided to make one. I got the glass, coated it, and assembled
The artist compares the color achieved to the illusory color observed
the first cube. I stood and looked at it, and I thought it was the most
when gasoline floats on a puddle of water. However humble this
beautiful thing I’d ever seen in my whole life.” (Zones of Experience:
comparison, the look of Bell’s coated glass planes is brilliant and
the Art of Larry Bell, Albequerque, 1997, p. 23). Though his cubes were
subtle. Each plane is dream-like, reflective yet also transparent.
a great success, Bell was not satisfied to stop there and sought ways
The elegant form in concert with light resonates with transcendent
to expand on his vision. He moved from the simpler cubes of the
beauty and inspires the viewer to explore the limits of perception.
sixties to more open and evolving structures such as the present lot.
“Larry Bell’s work may appear rational and conceptual, and although
The artist explains this shift:
mathematics appear to determine the form of his structures, his is no less an art of emotion. Light is no longer used to dramatize, but
The most interesting thing about the cubes for me was where the
rather to define the experience.” (S. Afif, “Larry Bell: Through the
corners came together, and the way the color faded from the corners to
Looking Glass,” Larry Bell: works from New Mexico, Lyon, 1989, p. 22)
the center of the glass in each piece. So I sat there, day after day, just looking at the work, trying to figure out the next step, I realized how completely my interest had come to be how the colors met at the corners. It was only natural that I get rid of the cube format and just make big corners. The simpler constructions made it possible to make them larger. I could make them big enough to include my peripheral vision. Ibid, Lyon, 1989, p. 16
12
RICHARD ARTSCHWAGER b. 1923 Untitled, 1967 Acrylic on Celotex in artist’s frame. 23 x 23 in. (58.4 x 58.4 cm).
Estimate $ 3 0 0 , 0 0 0 - 4 0 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Nicola Jacobs Gallery, London EXHIBITED London, Nicola Jacobs Gallery, Richard Artschwager: Selected Works
1964-1988, June 22 - September 3, 1988 LITERATURE Nicola Jacobs Gallery, ed., Richard Artschwager: Selected Works
1964-1988, London, 1988, pl. 5 (illustrated)
Renowned for breaking the conventions of art, Richard Artschwager has been adopting a multiplicity of forms for almost fifty years. His work can be categorized as Pop Art, because of its incorporation of commercial and industrial materials; as Minimal Art, because of its solid presence; and as Conceptual Art, because of its clever and intellectual detachment. But none of these classifications adequately defines the aims of an artist who specializes in categorical confusion and works to reveal the levels of deception involved in pictorial illusionism. Artschwager’s work provokes in order to make the structures of perception and reality immediately understandable. R. Armstrong, Richard Artschwager, New York/ London, 1988 Untitled, 1967 represents a frontal facade of an building in Artschwager’s iconic way. Through his use of a grisaille palette of white, blacks and grays, he explores the tension between the photograph and the modernist grid. Celotex, commonly used in inexpensive house constructions, proved to be a special potent medium for Artschwager to challenge the notion of what can comprise a painting. Yet Celotex has its own intrinsic visual activity inducing a wavy and patterned surface. Its uneven ridges of the surface are challenging illusionistic spaces and representational art. While being physically appealing, sensual, tactile and admirably crafted, Celotex seems an unlikely carrier of meaning. But for Artschwager it is a visual catalyst for thinking and in his hands it becomes purified as art, which he defines as “thought experiencing itself” (Ibid, p. 39). These formal elements serve to de-materialize his images to the point of allowing multiple and shifting readings referring literally and metaphorically to the space inside and outside of themselves.
¨
13
SOL LEWITT 1928 - 2007 Modular Cube/Base, circa 1971 Baked enamel on steel in two parts. Cube: 13 3/8 x 13 3/8 x 13 3/8 in. (34 x 34 x 34 cm); base: 40 1/8 x 40 1/8 x 3/8 in. (101.9 x 101.9 x 1 cm); 13 3/4 x 40 1/8 x 40 1/8 in. (34.9 x 101.9 x 101.9 cm) overall.
Estimate $ 1 2 0 , 0 0 0 -1 8 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Dewain Valentine, Hawaii; Private collection, New York; Paula
Cooper Gallery, New York; David and Mary Robinson, San Francisco; Private collection, New York; L&M Arts, New York EXHIBITED New York, L&M Arts, Elemental Form, October 19 - December 16,
2006 LITERATURE L&M Arts, ed., Elemental Form, New York, 2006, p.17 (illustrated)
The best that can be said for either the square or the cube is that they are relatively uninteresting in themselves. Being basic representations of two- and three-dimensional form, they lack the expressive force of other more interesting forms and shapes. They are standard and universally recognized, no initiation being required of the viewer; it is immediately evident that a square is a square and a cube, a cube. Released from the necessity of being significant in themselves, they can be better used as grammatical devices from which the work may proceed. The use of a square or cube obviates the necessity of inventing other forms and reserves their use for invention. S. LeWitt, “Homage to the Square,” Art in America, July/August 1967, p. 54 In the 1960s Sol LeWitt introduced the beginning of his threedimensional sculptural works. Both conceptual and minimalist, these works culminated LeWitt’s interest in mathematical models and spatial incorporation within art. The skeletal mathematical matrix fused with the simplicity and sterility of the white cubic form of the present lot creates an architectural three-dimensional Cartesian plane which leads the viewer to focus on both the form and the space in which it occupies. The grid-like plinth on which the skeletal cube is centered adds an additional geometrical element where the viewer can imagine the numerous positional possibilities within the ridged structure and reinforces the mathematical precision of the structural placement.
14
ED RUSCHA b. 1937 Mean As Hell, 2002 Acrylic on canvas. 36 x 40 in. (91.4 x 101.9 cm). Signed and dated “Ed Ruscha 2002” on the reverse.
Estimate $ 4 0 0 , 0 0 0 - 6 0 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Patrick Painter Inc., Los Angeles
This work will be included in a forthcoming volume of Edward Ruscha: Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, edited by Robert Dean and Lisa Turvey.
Doug Aitken, Rise, 2001
Western history, western expansion… migration, restlessness, and lives
Ruscha portrays Los Angeles primarily through images of its facades,
played out in the front and back seats of the automobile. Out there on
its signage, its roadside attractions… He also paints the hills that rise
the highway was a no man’s land with points of no return, a landscape
up behind the city and the mountains that loom even higher in the
representing both danger and freedom—halfway between heaven and hell
distance as you leave it, away from the ocean… away from Autopia and
N. Benezra and K. Brougher, EdRuscha, Washington, D. C.,
Freewayland, the flatlands, the avenues of Anywheresville… the dingbat
Hirshhorn, p. 158
architecture, the tower blocks, the wavy-line moderne, the neat little homes, every variety of architectural style from Tacoburger Aztec, the
By 2002, Ed Ruscha had long established his formidable place in
towers and slabs, the bungalows and the gas stations.
the American art scene. After decades of investigations into the
P. Wollen, “Hard Cues”, Ed Ruscha: Catalogue Raisonné of the
pictorial use of language to describe the underbelly of American
Paintings, Volume Two: 1971-1982, New York, 2005, p. 8-9
culture, followed by explorations in filmmaking, the artist returned to the canvas with a new scope of words and images reflective of his
The present lot is a return to a series Rusha began in the 1980s,
life’s experience. Born and raised in Oklahoma City in the wake of
which paired views of epic city-light grids with short phrases that
the dust bowl, Ruscha had artistically come into his own after driving
ironically combined the speed of city life with the stereotypical
out West in 1956. There, he encountered the sun and industry of Los
“country” tone of America’s rural, Wild West past. The grid is a
Angeles, the cultural force of Hollywood, and the archetypal ethic of
veritable survey of the Los Angeles landscape: instead of focusing
the quintessential American rogue figure: the cowboy.
on a single emblematic object, Ruscha illuminates the cityscape, perhaps the most immediate and general symbol of civilization.
The trajectory of the American artist during the second half of the
Compositionally, the works represent a further step toward
20 century produced Ruscha’s early influences, and was later
breaking down a space in the manner of Piet Mondrian’s abstracted
largely influenced by his outstanding body of work. Ruscha was
landscapes. Ruscha’s Mean As Hell shows a slanted view of city
inspired by the success of Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg
lights from above. Though photorealistic, the work also breaks the
in their elimination of the figure-ground relationship through reliance
canvas into an abstracted plane.
th
on public imagery. Likewise, with his west coast sentimentality, Ruscha explored iconic symbols of the California lifestyle.
Ed Ruscha photographed in 2002
Ed Ruscha, Hollywood, 1968
Ruscha’s continuing interest in mapping, identifying locations, and
The question of seriousness is the question of the heart of Ruscha…
exploring in-flight vantage points… is apparent in these airborne
whether his cultural stance is to be taken seriously. Ruscha flirts
streetlight paintings. The artist attributes this predisposition to a
with being mistaken for a slick commercial artist, and he slips in and
childhood experience: ‘I think that [being a newspaper delivery boy] also
out of Pop art, that style based on sticking low art devices in high art
had something to do with my feelings about surveying, my interest in
places… The enigma in Ruscha is thus not art-world esoteric, but rather
diagrams, rigid street patterns.
accessible in his layering of sentimental banality and stand-up-comic
R. Marshall, Ed Ruscha, New York, 2003, p. 208-209
wit… Ruscha’s method of criticizing without criticism blends with his ability to illustrate without illustration. Ruscha becomes an important
The present lot represents a theological revision to the 1980s set:
modern artist, indeed wedges himself as close to the core of it as any
instead of critiquing the monotony of civilization and its cultural
artist of the sixties and seventies, by staying at the edge. His traversal
attitude toward rural America, Ruscha introduces a more direct
from Oklahoma kid to California cutie to cosmopolitan subversive is not
allusion to the rogue identity of the Western cowboy. Referencing, as
quite a paradigm of recent American art, but the saga wouldn’t be the
he frequently has, film and Hollywood culture, Ruscha appropriates the
same without him.
words “MEAN AS HELL” to reflect a dramatized view of the American
P. Plagens, “Ed Ruscha, Seriously,” The Works of Edward Ruscha,
landscape. Meanwhile, we are reminded of another influence, Robert
San Fransisco, p. 40
Frank’s The Americans, a cynical yet hopeful survey of American life in the 1950s as people worked to reconcile the industrial emergence of their nation, while coping with private struggles. The present lot equates the iconic cityscape as both a monument to civilization and a place for struggle, requiring the same toughness for survival as the raw American terrain. It is a menacing reminder of the challenges inherent to success in an urban environment. Yet the work is also a hopeful homage to the vastness of America and the beauty embodied in the broad span of the West Coast, as well as the history of individualism embedded in the tradition of America. Painted in deep blue with white city lights and red letters, it references both studded denim and the American flag, emblems that connect America’s history to its present, and the archetypal cowboy to Hollywood. Thus, Ruscha re-appropriates elements of Americana, bringing both biting critique and thoughtful humor into his works, and blurring the lines between landscape and language; advertisement and art; commercial culture and historical realism. Thus, the present lot represents a culmination of Ruscha’s life: his appreciation for the rural American west gleaned from his Oklahoma upbringing; his early artistic development in the great lush expanse of California and allure of Hollywood; and the scope and development of Los Angeles as he witnessed its growth. The picture itself straddles a boundary between painting and graphic design, involving layers of meaning derived through words, images, and composition. This aesthetic is exemplary of Ruscha’s oeuvre, which has always eradicated lines between forms of expression and instead probed the impact of theatrics. Piet Mondrian (1872 - 1944), Composition with large red plane, yellow, black, grey and blue, 1921. Photo: Cameraphoto Arte, Venice / Art Resource, NY ©2009 Mondrian/Holzman Trust c/o HCR International Warington, VA
15
JOHN MCCRACKEN b. 1934 Speak, 1994 Polyester resin, fiberglass, and plywood. 6 1/4 x 40 1/4 x 9 1/4 in. (15.9 x 102.2 x 23.5 cm). Signed, titled and dated “McCracken Speak 1994” on the reverse.
Estimate $ 9 0 , 0 0 0 -1 2 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Acquired directly from the artist EXHIBITED Geneva, Galerie Art & Public, John McCracken: Fluorescent Works,
April 24 - May 16, 1998; Milan, Arte Studio Invernizzi, John McCracken, December 10, 1998 - February 27, 1999 LITERATURE Galerie Art & Public, ed., John McCracken: Sculptures, Geneva,
1994, p. 35 (illustrated.); Arte Studio Invernizzi, John McCracken, Milan, 1998, p. 26 (illustrated.)
John McCracken’s monolithic, lacquer-covered “planks” were
…to experience their ‘objecthood’ is more than just to experience
instrumental in the development of sixties minimalism. His solid, yet
their ‘theatricality’, their surface, style, and ‘presence’, for even the
ephemeral sculptures questioned the definition of space and the
word ‘beauty’ seems insufficient… McCracken sets up an experience
experience of encountering objects. The present lot is particularly
that takes you beyond Euclidean shapes toward a form of geometric
exemplary of McCracken’s oeuvre, evoking a fresh, organic quality
representation that might be described as organic, and which evokes
reflective of his California roots. The work is serene and stately, yet
inner, meditative and ‘feel good’ experiences.
it brings to mind the gloss of a surfboard or a new car painted fire-
J. Rian, “John McCracken,” Frieze Magazine, Issue 28, May 1996
engine red. McCracken was first exposed to New York minimalism through magazines, but his West Coast sensibilities informed the post-modern dialogue and contributed to the continued study of iconic structures.
16
ANDY WARHOL 1928 -1987 Brillo Box, 1964 Silkscreen ink and house paint on plywood. 17 x 17 x 14 in. (43.2 x 43.2 x 35.6 cm). Stamped by the Estate of Andy Warhol and numbered “A1094.107” on the underside.
Estimate $ 7 0 0 , 0 0 0 - 9 0 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Frederick W. Hughes, New York; Joseph K. Levene Fine Art, Ltd,
New York LITERATURE G. Frei and N. Printz, The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné, Vol.02A,
Paintings and Sculptures 1964-1969, New York, 2004, Brillo cat. no. 700
Photo © Billy Name / SLP Stock
Andy Warhol is one of the preeminent artists of the 20th century, the
images of others, especially those created as labels for commercial
1960s marking the years in which he created some of the most iconic
products. Critics of Warhol’s work believed that such utilization of
works of art ever produced. In 1963, Warhol moved to a new studio
such labels degraded the seriousness of art. Warhol’s Brillo Box
which quickly became known as “The Factory.” The name of the
“made the form of that question finally and forever clear: how is it
studio was emblematic of the type of work Warhol produced there,
possible for something to be a work of art when something else,
using popular images of celebrities and mass-produced objects to
which resembles it to whatever degree of exactitude, is merely a
challenge the status quo of what was considered art. The works
thing, or an artifact, but not an artwork? Why is Brillo Box when the
depicted subjects at the forefront of popular and consumer culture
Brillo cartons in the warehouse are merely soap-pad containers?”
such as Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy, Campbell’s soup cans,
(A.C. Danto, “Andy Warhol: Brillo Box” Art Forum, New York, 1993). A
and the Brillo Box. Warhol will forever be known as the man who
new philosophical question regarding the aesthetics and future of art
blurred the line between mass-produced consumer objects and the
was launched.
canon of fine art, changing the conventions of art and the market in which it exists. Warhol continued to utilize mainstream figures and
Warhol’s boxes continued the debate sparked by the use of the
objects in his work until his death in 1987.
ready-made: whether the context in which an object was created and displayed is enough to categorize it as art. While Warhol’s box
Pop art, originating in Britain and culminating in the United States
sculptures seemed to raise the same questions brought up by works
in the 1960s, challenged the tradition of aesthetics by transforming
such as Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain, the essential difference, of
images of mass-produced commodities of popular culture into fine
course, is that Warhol’s boxes were not found objects at all, but
art displayed in a gallery. By completely dislocating the image from
hand-made objects, meticulously recreated in another medium.
its context and isolating it as an autonomous object, a commodity
With this project, Warhol further blurred the line between the
became a receptor of thought and reconsideration. Andy Warhol
ready-made and traditional art by engaging in recognizable artistic
was the leading figure of this revolution in thought and aesthetics.
production, but only in his replication of a mass-produced consumer
Pop artists were using paint and mediums in entirely new ways
object. Warhol was not only furthering the debate about the place
to challenge the essence of art, dripping it, splashing it, and even
of the ready-made in the art world introduced by Duchamp, he was
entirely submerging objects with images in order to cast them in
also expanding on the ideas he had explored in his variations on
new light. Objects that would normally be ignored for their banality
Campbell’s Soup Cans.
were screaming for attention through their unusual display. It was an attempt to expose the truth of a mass consumer culture. Warhol
While the Soup Cans had been heralded as revolutionary for their
posed questions that could no longer be ignored.
use of consumer objects as subject matter, Warhol went a step further with the Brillo Boxes. Though the Soup Cans introduced
In 1964 Warhol exhibited his first series of Brillo Boxes at a solo show
a new practice of the obvious utilization of generic commodities,
at New York’s Sable Gallery alongside other boxes meant to replicate
they were still executed in a more traditional medium of paint on a
the packaging for Del Monte Peach Halves, Campbell’s Tomato Soup,
canvas. Warhol’s Brillo Boxes, though crafted out of wood, look to the
and Heinz’s Ketchup. Each of the boxes was constructed of wood in
viewer exactly like the boxes one would have found in the store. With
the dimensions of the actual box with the label from the respective
this work, Warhol forced the public to expand their notion of what
brand silk-screened on its surfaces. To the viewer, the boxes looked
constitutes art even further by making his art appear all the more
just as one would find them in any store. Warhol also utilized
commercial and even superficial.
unusual methods of display for both the Campbell’s Soup Cans and the Brillo Boxes in order to link them back to the original product as
There is one key difference between Warhol’s work and the products
much as possible. The Soup Cans were displayed in a continuous
after which they were modeled: Warhol’s boxes were empty. By
row, as they would be in a grocery store shelf. The Brillo Boxes were
leaving the boxes empty of the products with which they are labeled,
a three dimensional extension of what Warhol had done with the
he makes a subtle, yet powerful comment about the importance of
Campbell’s Soup Cans, stacked in columns just as if they were for
the image and of advertising in the modern world. Through this piece
sale. By displaying his works in a nontraditional format Warhol was
Warhol seems to be arguing that it was not the items themselves that
removing them even more from the realm of the traditional art world.
mattered but rather how they were packaged and what image they
The utilization of such ubiquitous household brands revealed the
portrayed. This piece is an emblem of Warhol’s mission to challenge
“commercial framework behind the pristine spaces of the art gallery
the notion of what defined art and the attitudes it provoked. Warhol
and art museum, while rubbing the nose of high culture in the
is synonymous with the Pop Art movement, and the present lot
mundane disorder of the supermarket stockroom” (P. Walsh, “Brillo
makes it clear why. With this exemplary piece, Warhol utilizes the
Boxes,” Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, 1998).
mass produced product by removing it from its intended context and reinventing it as an object of art, a sculpture. In keeping with the Pop
Not surprisingly, such novelty was not immediately received
movement, Warhol essentially brings life and art in closer proximity,
positively. Many critics of the show felt that as an artist, Warhol
radically altering the definition and boundaries of art forever.
should be creating images of his own instead of replicating the
Photo Š Fred W. McDarrah
¨
17
ED RUSCHA b. 1937 Atlas, 1983 Dry pigment on paper. 22 1/2 x 30 in. (56.8 x 76 cm). Signed and dated “Ed Ruscha 1983” lower right.
Estimate $ 8 0 , 0 0 0 -1 2 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Don Francis, California; James Corcoran Gallery, Los Angeles;
Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles; Spark Gallery, Tokyo; Galerie Vedovi, Brussels; Edward Tyler Nahem, New York; Sprüth Magers Lee, London; Monika Sprüth Philomene Magers, Munich EXHIBITED New York, Edward Tyler Nahem, Ed Ruscha: Selected Works, May 6 -
June 30, 2005
This work will be included in a forthcoming volume of Edward Ruscha: Catalogue Raisonné of the Works on Paper. Ed Ruscha has established his formidable career on playful adventures in language. His work bridges graphic design, fine art and lingual experimentation with the sensibility of American folklore recreated through painting and photography. A resident of Los Angeles since 1956, Ruscha’s investigations into the Californian metropolis are also present in his work: text redefines mountains and pools, and assigns an identity to anonymous icons of the American landscape. Similarly, the present lot presents an image of an interior space marked by the slanted shadow of a setting sun, ironically labeled with a word that invokes travel, movement, and open outdoor spaces. To Ruscha, words intrinsically carry personal interpretations as an extension of the viewer’s individual experience. When I began painting, all my paintings were of words which were guttural utterances like Smash, Boss, Eat. Those words were like flowers in a vase; I just happened to paint words like someone else painted flowers. It wasn’t until later that I was interested in combinations of words and making thoughts, sentences, and things like that. E. Ruscha in Leave Any Information at the Signal: Writings, Interviews, Bits, Pages, Cambridge, 2002, p. 264
¨
18
ANDY WARHOL 1928-1987 Diamond Dust Shoes, 1981 Acrylic and silkscreen inks with diamond dust on canvas. 50 3/4 x 42 1/2 in. (129 x 108 cm). Stamped with The Estate of Andy Warhol and with The Andy Warhol Foundation seals and numbered “PA70.049” on the overlap.
Estimate $ 3 0 0 , 0 0 0 - 4 0 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, New York;
Gagosian Gallery, New York
Shortly after arriving in New York in June 1949, Andy Warhol received his first freelance assignment—to illustrate shoes for an article in Glamour magazine, “Success is a job in New York.” Warhol’s success as a commercial illustrator for fashion magazines and advertising agencies dramatically grew as he became the sole illustrator for the I. Miller shoe campaign a few years later. Subsequently, shoes quickly became one of one Warhol’s earliest and most classic motifs. In the 1980s Warhol returned to images of shoes and began setting multicolored combinations of women’s shoes against black backgrounds and covering the surface with sparkling diamond dust—a medium first presented to him by his printer and fellow Pop artist, Rupert Smith. The sparkling and glittering qualities inherent to diamond dust allowed Warhol to dramatically imbue his works with a heightened sense of sexiness, high fashion, glamour and stardom that he so very much adored.
19
JAMES ROSENQUIST 1933 Wild West World, 1996 Oil on canvas laid on board. 48 x 48 in. (122 x 122 cm). Signed, titled and dated “James Rosenquist ‘Wild West World’ 1996” on the overlap.
Estimate $ 2 0 0 , 0 0 0 - 3 0 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Max Lang Gallery, New York EXHIBITED Seattle, Winston Wachter Fine Art, Pop, February 21 - April 10, 1999 LITERATURE R. Hackett, “Pop Goes Exhibit at Winston Wachter,” Seattle PI,
March 5, 1999, p. 18
James Rosenquist’s visual commentary on the American culture of consumerism serves as a unique pictorial narrative of contemporary America. While his work consists of easily recognized images, we only have a vague sense of the meaning of the fragments, inviting contemplation and consideration. The uncertainty of the work slowly unfolds into the stark reality of the present state of America. The present lot, Wild West World, 1996, from the series Target Practice, is a direct reference to American violence and rampant gun crime that is the cultural legacy of the cowboys of the Wild West. When the series was first exhibited at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, and Feigen, Inc., Chicago, the works were arranged so that they face the viewer from every direction. With the barrel of the gun directly confronting the viewer, one finds oneself looking straight into the present violent realities. With death controlled by a mysterious hand, one cannot help but be exhilarated by the vibrant and cautionary yellow. Finally the viewer realizes that he is pointing the gun at himself. Through the barrel of the pistol—a black hole— Rosenquist’s observations of modern life and his criticisms of the world are reflected. The viewer is absorbed in the visual experience of the iconic power before him. In this striking work, Rosenquist has united both his acclaimed techniques and his personal views to invite insight into the social concerns of the United States. From his billboard years in the late 50s and early 60s, this work is a prime example of his unique understanding of color and form as a means of creating a powerful and strong composition. Using a cautionary yellow as his background and placing it against the imagery of the foreboding gun, this work becomes a platform of authority upon which Rosenquist warns his viewers of a reality forever recorded onto the surface of the canvas. I’ve been exhilarated by a numbness I get when I’m forced to see something close that I don’t want to see. James Rosenquist in M. Tucker, James Rosenquist, New York, 1972, p. 12
2 0 TIM NOBLE & SUE WEBSTER b. 1966 and 1967 Puny Undernourished Kid and Girlfriend From Hell, 2003
Webster Show: So Lovely It’s Obscene,” Boston Herald, May, 8, 2004; M.J. Malone, “Tim Noble & Sue Webster at the MFA,” Big Red & Shiny, Issue #7, May
82 multicolored neon sections, transformers. 71 x 111 3/4 x 1 1/2 in.
2004; T. Noble and S. Webster, Tim Noble & Sue Webster: Wasted Youth, New
(180.3 x 283.8 x 3.8 cm) and 82 3/4 x 110 1/4 x 1 1/2 in. (210.2 x 280 x 3.8 cm)
York 2006, n.p. (illustrated)
each. This work is from an edition of three plus two artist’s proofs.
Estimate $ 2 0 0 , 0 0 0 - 3 0 0 , 0 0 0 Provenance Modern Art, London Exhibited Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Tim Noble & Sue Webster, April 21 -
September 6, 2004
It has often been said that every age gets the art that it deserves. In the case of Tim Noble and Sue Webster, we get the art that we need…as a figurative and literal cipher of the debris of contemporary life, the art of
Literature A.B. Arts, “Money for Old Rope (Expect a Big Run on Toilet
Noble and Webster actively shows us who we have become and more
Paper Art),” The Independent on Sunday, March 21, 2004; J. Silver, “Noble —
importantly, who we remain. The artists’ deft use of figure by way of
sculpture, drawing, neon and flashing light signs indicate and direct us
sex and love as only we British can, sometimes thinking deeply,
toward our most urgent and sacred icons which like sirens beckon us,
sometimes just wasting time.’ An antiaesthetic of vulgarity rules on
as always, to what we desire and to what we imagine to gain the greatest
the surface of their work. Both art and the world are filled with dollar
release…our quest to transform ourselves and to rise above subject
signs, cheap parodies of Las Vegas lights, or expensive sculptures by
matter, whatever its form.
Bruce Nauman, with the great Londoners’ expression applied to all, and
M. Fletcher, “Love in a late capitalistic dystopia,” The Joy of Sex,
everything ‘fucking beautiful’! The implication is that wherever you are,
Seoul, 2005, p. 10
life and art are simple; success is easy to come by, on the streets, or Underneath the Arches, to recall the classic work of Gilbert & George.
‘Look at us,’ they seem to be saying, ‘Aren’t we beautiful? Isn’t life
N. Rosenthal, “The Magic Arts of Noble & Webster—Tim and
beautiful? Wherever we find ourselves, atop of heap of rubbish, making
Sue,” Tim Noble & Sue Webster: Wasted Youth, New York, 2006
22
ANSELM REYLE
1970
Sonnenuntergang am Genfer See (Sunset on Lake Geneva), 2005 Acrylic on canvas. 111 x 273 in. (283 x 695 cm). Signed and dated “Anselm Reyle 2005” on the reverse.
Estimate $ 8 0 , 0 0 0 -1 0 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Galerie Giti Nourbaksch, Berlin EXHIBITED Kunsthalle Zürich, Ars Nova, January 21 - March 26, 2006 LITERATURE The Saatchi Gallery, ed., Germania: New Art From Germany, London,
p. 120 (illustrated)
Having spun his career from the sediment of Postmodern ironists, Anselm Reyle has made his body of work by freely embracing kitsch and re-appropriating conventions of modern art. Reyle’s work reflects this investigation into the nature of materials and the physical qualities of balance. The present lot exemplifies Reyle’s highly regarded series of colored stripe paintings, referencing the works of Barnett Newman and Ellsworth Kelly. A dynamic arrangement of horizontal stripes of varying colors, gloss, and width, the present lot reflects both the electricity of the disco era and the gestural immediacy of the present. Traditional artists would rather avoid using decorative items, but that’s exactly what I wanted to do. To risk the danger of being decorative…. My work is more a mirror of society. My work isn’t cynical, either. I just take things that fascinate me, especially when I know that they are deemed tasteless. I’m interested in riding the border of tastelessness. That’s where I get my energy. I don’t necessarily feel that there is something like good and bad taste…. I like to show what I discover, and that is how I develop my language. Anselm Reyle in an interview with C. Mooney, “Anselm Reyle: The new king of kitsch?” ArtReview Magazine, December 2008
23
KEITH TYSON
b. 1969
Nature Painting, 2006 Enamel on aluminum. 36 x 36 in. (91.4 x 91.4 cm). Signed, titled and dated “K. Tyson Nature Painting 2006� on the reverse.
Estimate $ 5 0 , 0 0 0 -7 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Keith Tyson Projects, London; Private collection, London
Turner Prize wining artist Keith Tyson works in a range of media, investigating the unrelenting query of human experience and existence. He examines the inexplicable forces of nature, its causality, its limits and possibilities. Tyson addresses the questions with a scientific and technological approach, rooted from his background in shipbuilding and engineering. His work is a powerful statement about using science as a way to see and understand the world and the art produced therein. While he is meticulous about his process, understanding the properties of his materials and the effects they have on each other, the result is purely determined by the course of nature. The application of the paint is the question posed to human existence; the reaction answers to nature’s impulsivity. In the present lot, Nature Painting, 2006, Tyson works with an acid primed aluminum panel. He pours various pigments and paints and witnesses the natural interaction of the substances. As gravity pulls it across the panel, the behavior of the different fluids is determined by the viscosity of the paint, the rate of evaporation, the chemical reaction, the ambient temperature, the quantities of the paint and the order in which it is applied. The outcome is never predetermined or predictable; it is a scene only in nature. Familiar forms begin to surface, the outline of a landscape, a nebulous cloud, a unique rock formation. As Tyson points out, the significant aspect of the series is not that they are paintings of nature, but that they are paintings by nature.
24
OLAFUR ELIASSON
b. 1967
Moonlight, 2003 Twelve industrial lamps on metal armature 33 1/2 in. (85 cm) diameter. This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist. This work is from an edition of three.
Estimate $ 1 0 0 , 0 0 0 -1 5 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE neugerriemschneider, Berlin LITERATURE H. Broeker, ed., Olafur Eliasson: Your Lighthouse; Works with Light
1991-2004, Ostfildern-Ruit, 2004, p. 163, pl. 127 (illustrated); O. Eliasson, ed., Olafur Eliasson: Your Engagement has Consequences; On the Relativity of Your Reality, Baden, 2006, p. 174 (illustrated); T. Zenth, Ny Dansk Kunst – New Danish Art, Copenhagen, 2006, p. 16 (illustrated)
Olafur Eliasson’s pendulum lamp Moonlight bathes the viewer in a light of the same intensity as actual moonlight. Comprised of twelve lamps mounted on a geodesic steel frame, the work is an almost spherical luster hanging from the ceiling with a romantic glow. The appeal of the lighting invites the viewer to spend time and truly engage in the experience of the piece. It allows for total immersion in an unframed moment of art. The potency and emotional resonance of Eliasson’s work is due in part to how far removed, how disturbingly alien his pieces are with respect to the familiar, expected patterns of everyday experience, even when his work is situated fully within mundane environments. J. Crary, Light Art: Targetti Light Art Collection, Milan, 2005, p. 70
25
JACK GOLDSTEIN
1945 - 2003
Untitled, 1987 Acrylic and metallic pigment on canvas. 48 1/4 x 96 1/8 in. (122.6 x 244.2 cm). Signed, titled and dated “Jack Goldstein Untitled, 1987” on the reverse.
Estimate $ 5 0 , 0 0 0 -7 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Rosenthal Fine Art, Chicago EXHIBITED Edinburgh, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Jack Goldstein, August 6 -
September 25, 1988 LITERATURE J. Goldstein, ed., Jack Goldstein, Edinburgh, 1988, p. 38 (illustrated)
The present lot is an awe-inspiring canvas of Jack Goldstein’s signature lush jewel-toned psychedelic imagery juxtaposed with flat painted silver circles. Our experience of the painting as a theatrical event is heightened by the black and fluorescent pink bands, cropping the image and functioning like a curtain or screen to unveil the spectacle within. Our gaze is refused any permanent focus, vacillating between the illustionistic depths of the supernova-like center of the painting and the silver circles which insist we remember the flat plane of the canvas, like a Godard film that briefly lets the viewer escape into the storyline and then jolts them out with a voiceover reminder that this is just a film. Time and again he portrays the spectacular instant, its gorgeous effects: intimidating thunderstorms, majestic views of interstellar space, the staggering effects of computer imaging, the utter silence of night flying. Before his pictures it is natural to remember the vivid and poignant scenes of J.W.M. Turner and Frederic E. Church, or James McNeill Whistler’s Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket. It is natural, but rarely useful. Goldstein portrays the drama of split-second timing, the precipitous vision of the photograph and the video screen. It is his way to leave us without recourse to the narratives so necessary to the meaning of earlier art. Goldstein’s art suspends time and our gaze precisely at the point where origins and endings blur beyond recognition. R. Jones, Jack Goldstein: Recent Work, 1986-1987, New York, 1987, n.p.
26
YOSHITOMO NARA
b. 1959
Black Hole Cosmic Heads, 2004 Lacquer and fiberglass-reinforced plastic in two parts. Main disc: 82 5/8 x 82 5/8 x 23 5/8 in. (209.9 x 209.9 x 60 cm); single head: 19 x 12 x 12 in. (48.3 x 30.5 x 30.5 cm). Signed and dated “Nara 2004” on the reverse. This work is unique from a series of six similar works.
Estimate $ 1 2 0 , 0 0 0 -1 8 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna
One of the most prolific artists to emerge from the Japanese Pop movement of the 1990s, artist Yoshitomo Nara’s oeuvre includes thematic traits derived from Japanese anime cartoons and manga comics, imbued with a palpable sense of punk rock nihilism and defiance wrapped around the uniquely Japanese phenomenon of kawaii (cute) and otaku cultures: “Hello Kitty channeling the Sex Pistols,” (I. Schaffner, Yoshitomo Nara: Nothing Ever Happens, Cleveland, 2003). Nara’s body of work explores the simultaneously liberating and terrifying world of childhood imagination as he has fashioned a universe populated by little girls whose insolent stances and expressions of thinly veiled malice belie their inherent cuteness; big-eyed and pigtailed, foulmouthed chain-smoking representatives of the inherent rebelliousness of youth and adolescence. Black Hole Cosmic Heads, touches on some of Nara’s darker themes. His iconic little girls reappear in the present lot, at least in part— their disembodied heads, cast in black plastic, float on the surface of a dark, reflective pool. Suggestive of a spinning tidal pool or, as the name suggests, a black hole, the work induces a sense of muted dread; it touches the nerve of our collective infantile memories of the universe as overwhelmingly infinite and dangerously prodigious.
27
GEORGE CONDO
b. 1957
Mental States (Hiding and Finding), 2000 Oil and acrylic on canvas. 60 x 100 in. (152.4 x 254 cm).
Estimate $ 1 0 0 , 0 0 0 -1 5 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Patrick Painter Inc., Santa Monica; Pace Wildenstein, New York EXHIBITED Los Angeles, Patrick Painter, Mental States, December 2, 2000 - January 27, 2001 LITERATURE C. Knight, “Paintings Take a Serious Look at Cartoonish Human Nature,”
LA Times, December 15, 2000, p. E4 (illustrated)
One of the most influential American artists on the international art scene today, George Condo’s work synthesizes Cubism, Expressionism, and Classicism in a supreme and iconic way. Condo investigates and challenges the nature of portraiture, introducing the language of the Old Masters into Contemporary Art, influencing all generations thereafter. His work provokes through its controversial subject matter guised in classic style. The characters of his subjects are depicted so that their souls are reflected in their features and circumstances. Condo depicts mental states, imagining combinations of features to describe the unconsidered inner life. The present lot, Mental States (Hiding and Finding), 2000, is from a series of semi-abstracted paintings that explore the appearance and physicality of figurative references in a free gestural mode. They depict the aforementioned introspective nature of the human condition, as felt and observed by the artist. Condo explores the mental states of his subjects and moves through the emotions in rhythmic lines that hypnotize the viewers and force them to consider their own inner state. The paintings are both light and dark, peaceful and maddening. The paintings appear as thought processes, as if Condo is working out the complexities of his own condition through an abstracted experience. Mental States (Hiding and Finding) is a kind of inner portrait. Faces suddenly appear in the abstracted lines and are caught between cartoonish and classical representations only to disappear and reappear again through a continuous metamorphosis. The characters endure the chaos of the lines and resurface from the journey, changed by the madness they defeated. The chaotic culture in which the portraits are caught challenges not only the subjects, but also the viewers to question which world is real and which portrait is theirs.
¨
28
BANKSY
b. 1975
Insane Clown, 2001 Spray paint stencil on Hessian. 99 1/4 x 76 1/8 in. (252 x 193.5 cm).
Estimate $ 2 0 0 , 0 0 0 - 3 0 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Lazarides Gallery, London
Graffiti is not the lowest form of art. Despite having to creep about at night and lie to your mum it’s actually the most honest artform available…The people who run our cities don’t understand graffiti because they think nothing has the right to exist unless it makes a profit. But if you just value money then your opinion is worthless. The say graffiti frightens people and is symbolic of the decline in society, but graffiti is only dangerous to three types of people; politicians, advertising executives and graffiti writers. Imagine a city where graffiti wasn’t illegal. A city where everybody could draw wherever they liked, where every street was awash with a million colours and little phrases. Where standing at a bus stop was never boring. A city like that felt like a party where everyone was invited, not just the estate agents and barons of big business. Imagine a city like that and stop leaning against the wall—it’s wet. Banksy, Banksy Wall and Piece, London, 2007, p. 8 & 85
29
ALBERT OEHLEN
b. 1954
Untitled, 1989 Oil, metallic paint and varnish on canvas. 95 x 79 in. (241.3 x 200.7 cm). Signed and dated “A. Oehlen 89” on the reverse.
Estimate $ 1 5 0 , 0 0 0 - 2 5 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Patrick Painter Inc., Santa Monica
Untitled, 1989, an early abstract work of German painter Albert Oehlen, is a classic example of what the artist describes as his “postnon-representational” style. The present lot, characterized by muted, swirling swashes of color occupies an enigmatic space between representation and abstraction. Shapes converge into almost recognizable subjects, suggesting purposeful invention only to dissolve back into the fluid, broad space of the canvas. Oehlen, a master of painterly deception, explores and critiques the accepted canons of abstraction though a deliberate appropriation of traditionally abstract form and expression. However, the artist chooses to reject artistic tradition and instead aims to reconstitute a contemporary meaning for art as an independently articulate form. The result is a teasing glimpse into Oehlen’s confrontation with painterly tradition while simultaneously fracturing the exploration of visual language.
30
SHERRIE LEVINE
b. 1947
Untitled (Lead Knots: 7), 1988 Metallic paint on wood in artist’s wooden frame. 52 1/8 x 42 1/8 in. (133.4 x 107 cm). Signed, titled and dated “Sherrie Levine #7 1988” on the reverse.
Estimate $ 6 0 , 0 0 0 - 8 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Donald Young Gallery, Chicago; Mary Boone Gallery, New York EXHIBITED Chicago, Donald Young Gallery, Sherrie Levine, January 13 - February 18, 1989
The knot paintings are simply plywood panels—a cheap and easily available material—on which the artist has marked, with the most minimal of gestures, the plugs that replace the missing knots. Encased in shadowbox frames and displayed as “paintings” in the most traditional of modern formats, the panels can be read as a comment on art’s status as a commodity—that a painting is only another ready-made, an allusion to the found objects of Marcel Duchamp. Looking beyond the frame and glass to the images themselves, other interpretations become possible. The wood grain may refer to nature, highlighting of the knotholes to the arbitrary, since chance determined their placement and size. The painted plugs can be read as funny or touching, suggesting raindrops or tears. By painting the plugs, Levine emphasizes that something else once filled them, suggesting absence. This absence is the subject of these paintings, as it had been in much of Levine’s previous work. The shapes of the knotholes present a decidedly female imagery. Gilded or painted then framed and put behind glass, they suggest traditional symbols of female sexuality—desirable but unattainable. This series thus suggests a link between absence as the subject of her work, desire for possession, and unfulfilled sexual longing. P. Rosenzweig, “Sherrie Levine: Objects of Desire,” Sherrie Levine: Art at the Edge, Washington DC, 1988, p. 10
31
TONY CRAGG
b. 1949
Paysage avec Lac (Landscape with Lake), 1985 Oil stick on found wood and found metal. 82 x 99 x 64 in. (208.3 x 251.5 x 162.6 cm).
Estimate $ 9 0 , 0 0 0 -1 2 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Galerie Buchmann, Basel EXHIBITED Geneva, Galerie Pierre Huber, Tony Cragg, Spring 1986; Geneva, Galerie
Pierre Huber, Tony Cragg, April 7 - May 6, 1989
Tony Cragg reassesses, recycles, and re-examines materials in ways that have never been imagined in sculptural form before. His work is inspired not by a preconception, but by astute observation and attention to the world around him; through his reinvention and redefinition of materials, he seeks to decode the esoteric environment around us. This comes from a scientific approach, which is rooted in his background of working in biochemistry labs, investigation changing physical and chemical properties, forming his judicious and unwavering observation skills. His early projects reveal a strong analogy with the theoretical foundations of quantum physics, moving him out of the studio and into the environment in his search for materials. He began collecting things, reinventing them after being discarded as useless. In his exploration, he started to investigate the tension between human structures and concealed natural processes. He sought new literal and metaphorical functions of the material and began to explore its place in the world. His work in the early 1980s is the after effect of an explosion from this investigation. In the present lot, Paysage avec Lac ( Landscape with Lake), 1985, the cubes have arranged themselves from the debris and wreckage into something vaguely familiar. This series of work was inspired by memories Cragg had of driving, noticing shapes as they pass by, some standing out and others constantly blurred or shifting along the horizon. The scribbles all over the surface function like a map tracing the rapid motion of the eye as it gazes out of the window and follows the passing objects. The forms transform before our eyes into things our memories recognize; the shape of a building, the silhouette of a tree, the outline of a lake. The dichotomy of reinventing materials, yet recalling old memories is a truly fascinating and unparalleled concept. Landscape with Lake is a formation of something foreshadowed in the mind, but that does not actually exist in the natural world. It is a reflection of a feeling, a memory, a dream about the world and our existence. In explaining his work, Cragg reveals, “We find objects offering up meanings and emotions relating to their literal form, their metaphysics, their poetry, and their emergence from the natural world, or from their origins of nature” (“Tony Cragg,” Artforum, March 1988, p. 120).
32
FRED SANDBACK
1943 - 2003
Untitled (Leaning Vertical Construction), 1974 Four strands of black acrylic yarn. 109 5/8 x 9 in. (278.4 x 22.9 cm). This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the estate and numbered Fred Sandback Estate Number 2100.
Estimate $ 8 0 , 0 0 0 -1 2 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Estate of Fred Sandback; Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago
Simplicity of form is not necessarily simplicity of experience. Robert Morris, Minimal Art, Cologne, 2006, p. 78 Sandback’s quiet gestures and unassuming, infinitely portable materials yield vibrant presences that shift between the ephemeral and the permanent. With a line and thin air, he brings a perceptual field into being, making a place from hitherto undefined space. In this quest to offer the viewer a sense of place, Sandback expresses the mythic need for orientation in the boundless universe and gives form to the inquiries that have preoccupied philosophers since antiquity. His art echoes Aristotle’s topos, a placespace, and Martin Heidegger’s yearning for ‘a dwelling for man in the midst of things.’ S. Delehanty, Fred Sandback: Sculpture, Seattle, 1991, p. 13
33
DAN WALSH
b. 1960
Untitled, 1991 Acrylic on canvas. 70 3/4 x 89 in. (179.7 x 226 cm). Signed, titled and dated “Daniel Walsh Untitled 1991” on the stretcher.
Estimate $ 3 0 , 0 0 0 - 5 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Acquired directly from the artist.
Dan Walsh eludes categorization, straddling and even challenging several late twentieth century movements—minimalism, color field, and geometric abstraction. Through simple geometric form, Walsh creates an optical illusion of never-ending repetition and infinite expansion. His lines are mesmerizing in their electrical glow and perspectival deception. He handles paint and the canvas with such precision that the surface seems to simultaneously advance and recede, intimate yet infinite. His lines are all rendered by hand and only upon careful inspection do the imperfections appear, revealing his mission to create perfection despite the inherent imperfectability of mankind. Straight edges slightly bend with movement and lines quiver with subliminal vitality.
34
KARA WALKER
b. 1969
The Humane Acquisition of Chitlins, 1994 -1995 Paper cut-out mounted to paper. 72 1/4 x 52 1/4 in. (183.5 x 132.7 cm).
Estimate $ 4 0 , 0 0 0 - 6 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Brent Sikkema, New York EXHIBITED Portland, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Habit Forming: Contemporary
Art from Portland Collections, April 23 - May 30, 2007 ; Portland, Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery at Reed College, Working History, African American Objects, January 22 - March 2, 2008 LITERATURE B. Libby, “A Look Inside the Collecting Trove,” The Oregonian, April 29,
2007 (Illustrated); J. Bromer, “Habit Forming at PNCA,” PortlandArt.net (online content), May 14, 2007 (illustrated); C. Raymond, “You Need Art,” Portland Monthly, March 2008 (illustrated)
Internationally acclaimed artist Kara Walker revived the traditionally female craft form of silhouette cutting creating shadow dramas which with nuance and dark humor deal with complex and uncomfortable issues of race, taboo, pride, decency, power and identity. Walker was drawn to the use of the silhouette for its reductive quality—a silhouette reduces a rendering to two dimensions just as a racial stereotype is a reduction of an actual human being. Another aspect that appealed to her was that the silhouettes render everyone the color black. The silhouette also has a connotation of gentility to it, which serves to point out the historical hypocrisy of this country’s legacy of race relations, and adds to the irony in her powerful imagery. Well, a lot of the time every image is one lie or bad joke—on the surface— rather than an immediate truth. I guess the “truth” of an image or situation within a whole piece, occurs when the viewer is enticed to fill in the blank spaces. She is faced with the discomfort of realizing just how many bizarre and sometimes violent fantasies already occupy her mind. Kara Walker in H. Olbrist, Kara Walker: Safety Curtain 1, Vienna, 2002, p. 12
35
KATJA STRUNZ
b. 1970
Untitled, 2005 Painted wood in three parts. 68 x 29 x 5 1/2 in. (172.7 x 73.7 x 14 cm) overall. Signed “K Strunz” on the third element.
Estimate $ 2 0 , 0 0 0 - 3 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Andersen’s Contemporary, Berlin
It was as a student in Germany that Katja Strunz was first exposed to Robert Smithson’s prism-like 1964 sculpture, Untitled, 2005, and was inspired to create the wall-mounted, angular, monochromatic objects that have established and informed her identity as an artist. Her influential works, such as those included in the present lot, study the human notion of possession of space. Wall-mounted works allude to folded planes lithely alighted on the wall like birds, and yet the mediums used are often indelicate and raw, sometimes found, and always treated in a manner that enhances their true material qualities. The present lot is comprised of three such forms, made of wood and painted solid black and white with care to preserve the grain in the wood. This respect for materials is reflected in the manner of the grouping, which questions our eye’s regard for gravity and the density of form. The interaction between these objects references a natural flocking among groups of individuals. “The ubiquitous living-on of forms in Strunz’s work is neither eulogized as so many failed promises nor affirmed as still-wished-for utopian possibility but instead is maintained equivocally as the support for a continuing practice. Many of Strunz’s spatial compositions suggest movement arrested in flight, and her iconography flirts with mimesis, legible as enfolded or spread wings.” (S. Hudson, “Suzanne Hudson on Katja Strunz,” Artforum, New York, April 2006, p. 235). The present lot is exemplary of Strunz’s oeuvre and its regard for human spaces and the objects that invade them. Untitled, 2005, is an answer to the dialogue begun by earthworks of artists such as Smithson and Richard Serra. Strunz’s choice of strong, integral materials is a nod to the latter artists’ considerations of space; but the fleeting, light nature of her compositions perhaps more directly addresses other elements: those of levity and impermanence.
36
SYLVIE FLEURY
b. 1961
Vuitton Bag, 2000 Chromed cast bronze. 12 x 18 1/2 x 8 1/2 in. (30.5 x 47 x 21.6 cm). Inscribed “S. Fleury” and numbered of two on the lower right edge. This work is an artist’s proof from an edition of eight plus two artist’s proofs.
Estimate $ 3 0 , 0 0 0 - 5 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Acquired directly from the artist LITERATURE Universität Zürich, ed., “Geld & Gück: Die neue Ökonomie der Gefühle”,
Unimagazin, Zurich, 2006, p. 23 (illustrated)
The world of luxury, beauty and fashion is a world of utopias, longings, hopes and promises, a world that suggests the possibility of creating a whole new life, a freely chosen, self-designed and self-determined existence. Thus Sylvie Fleury gives shape and substance to a realm of our collective fantasy that was, for many centuries, reserved to art and to religious, allegorical art in particular. She presents images of this symbolic exchange to us without the intent to accuse or defame, simply taking note, leaving it to us to determine the extent to which we wish to comprehend her visually and aesthetically appealing ensembles as enlightened contributions as well. R. Wiehager, Sylvie Fleury, Ostfildren-Ruit, 1999, p. 122
37
DAVID LACHAPELLE
b. 1964
Leonardo DiCaprio: Nostalgic Styling, 1996 Digital c-print. 59 1/2 x 46 3/4 in. (151.1 x 118.7 cm). Signed “David LaChapelle” and numbered of three on a label adhered to the reverse. This work is from an edition of three.
Estimate $ 2 5 , 0 0 0 - 3 5 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York
His photographs don’t pretend to be offering a glimpse of any ‘truth’ behind the glamour. They are the glamour, and they suggest that there’s nothing much behind it all. They acknowledge that there is no ‘real’ person there, that modern celebrity and modern culture are only surface phenomena…The absence of personal revelation, the lack of angst and inner torment, is a welcome part of the package. When so much art seems to be about bitching and moaning, a picture that proclaims itself as just a picture is extremely appealing. G. Nicholson, “David LaChappelle’s Celebrations of Celebrity,” Modern Painters, London, 2006, p.83
38
TRACEY EMIN
b. 1963
Her soft lips touched mine and every thing became hard, 2008 Neon. 39 1/4 x 84 1/8 in. (213.8 x 99.7 cm). This work is from an edition of three.
Estimate $ 4 0 , 0 0 0 - 6 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Lehmann Maupin, New York
Nothing is out of bounds with Tracey Emin because the artist is merely telling stories about herself. In her work emotions are simple, and direct. She reconstructs her rocky childhood, weaves the memories of young sexual adventures and displays the glorious triumph of being. Fragile yet strong, the once enfant-terrible foreshadows much desired love and faith with pain, suffering and confession. Carl: Some of your neon works are like dystopic sex shop signs… It’s like they are advertising something that’s not quite right. It’s not as it should be. Tracey: Neon always has that seedy connection, but then I think it’s sexy too. It’s spangly, it’s pulsating. It’s out there, it’s vibrant. In Margate I grew up with neon in the cafes, the bars and the nightclubs, and all along the Golden Mile of amusement arcades. For me it’s always had a beautiful allure. C. Freedman, “Tracey Emin in conversation with Carl Freedman: Turn of the Screw,” Tracey Emin, New York, 2006, p. 328
39
JULES DE BALINCOURT
b. 1972
Ambitious New Plans, 2005 Oil on board. 40 1/8 x 59 3/4 in. (102 x 152 cm). Signed, titled and dated on the reverse.
Estimate $ 5 0 , 0 0 0 -7 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Zach Feuer Gallery, New York EXHIBITED New York, Zach Feuer Gallery, Jules de Balincourt: This is Our Town, March
3 - April 2, 2005; Royal Academy of Arts, USA Today, October 6 - November 4, 2006 LITERATURE M. Ratner, “Jules de Balincourt,” Frieze Magazine, May 2005; Halle,
Howard, “Jules de Balincourt,” Time Out New York, March 31- April 6, 2005, p 63 (illustrated); B. Boucher, “Jules de Balincourt at Zach Feuer (LFL),” Art in America, May 2005; J. de Balincourt, “Ambitious New Plans,” Harper’s Magazine, New York, November 2005, p. 22 (illustrated); Royal Academy Publications, ed., USA Today, London, 2006, p. 44 (illustrated)
The present lot, Ambitious New Plans, provides the viewer with a clear understanding of Jules de Balincourt’s compelling style. The work successfully demonstrates his mastery of color and shape, skewed proportions, and partially obscured figures and objects. The small figures surrounding the enormous, bright red conference table appear like game pieces, their faces non-descript, and their folded hands surrounding the table reveal the formality of the topics one can only assume are being discussed. The microphones and white specs of paper and coffee cups which fleck the edge of the table serve as the only disruption to the dominant color. In addition to de Balincourt’s striking composition in Ambitious New Plans, his subtle political content also comes to the surface; the viewer can almost feel the serious and unsettling atmosphere of the room, a nod to the artist’s success in illustrating the ambiance.
40
CARROLL DUNHAM
b. 1949
Another Island, 1989-1999 Acrylic, enamel, pastel and pencil on linen. 60 x 77 in. (152.4 x 195.6 cm). Signed “Carroll Dunham” center top; dated “1998 1999” upper right; signed, titled and dated “Carroll Dunham ‘Another Island’ 1998-99” on the stretcher.
Estimate $ 8 0 , 0 0 0 -1 2 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Galerie Ghislaine Hussenot, Paris
Carroll Dunham’s graphic, semi-figurative paintings are instantly recognizable in their unsettling mixture of cheeky cartoon-like characters and chromatic, vivid color. His work is an explosion of psycho-sexual imagery and is saturated with aggressive energy. Dunham synthesizes various schools of paintings, borrowing from Cubism, Abstract Expressionism, and Pop to create amorphous shapes that evolve into figures suddenly grotesque and hyper sexualized. As you peel away the layers of the canvas, a deeper sense of consciousness is revealed, and one becomes very self aware as various psycho-sexual drives penetrate the surface from below. In the 1990s, his work began to morph organic forms with human characteristics, a child-like hand, or a protruding nose suddenly appeared on the canvas before disappearing into its neighboring form. The paint melts into strange shapes of body parts, one finds oneself disoriented and questioning what is figure and what is background, whether it is male or female. As included in the present lot, Another Island, 1989-99, the phallusnosed character is the most well-known of Dunham’s forms. He is a wanderer through mountains of trash, a sailor peering through the landscape of dirt and waste. We don’t know whether he is lost or doomed, or simply without purpose or end. His company on this journey, the second figure, is strange and unsettling, rounded shapes penetrate the silhouette and we suddenly recognize hints of luscious lips, a supple breast, and chattering teeth. She is partially submerged in water, wading her way along their journey, while he floats in his make-shift boat and peers into the distance. They are perhaps the actors on the stage of sexual conflict amidst warfare or disaster. “Driven equally by rage, anxiety and hilarity, his paintings deliver an uncommonly potent combination of formal punch, narrative intrigue and metaphorical resonance” (Ken Johnson, “Suggestive Forms that Come out of the Plywoodwork,” New York Times, March 25, 2008).
41
HERNAN BAS
b. 1978
The Lonely Martian, 2006 Mixed media on linen over panel. 40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm). Initialed and dated “HB 06” lower right; initialed, titled and dated “The Lonely Martian HB 06” on the reverse.
Estimate $ 8 0 , 0 0 0 -1 2 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Sandroni Rey, Los Angeles; Private collection, Los Angeles EXHIBITED Aspen Art Museum, Like Color in Pictures, February 16 - April 15, 2007 LITERATURE H. Zuckerman Jacobson, Like Color in Pictures, Aspen, 2007, p. 23 (illustrated)
Bas paints not from historic posing, macho fever or ‘70s-style queen aesthetics but from a deep need to tell a story that has been waiting to be told, revealed within a story we already know. R. Juares, “Artists on Artists: Roberto Juarez on Hernan Bas”, BOMB, New York, 2004, p. 14 Bas captures the psychic and emotional fragility of adolescent love, angst and loneliness into a romanticized, albeit darkened and often gothic, dreamlike pictorial. The Lonely Martian can be seen as allegorical to the contemporary coming out story. Charged with elements of queer male adolescence taken in part by Bas’ own sexual identity, he drafts an element of “otherness”—a universal theme common among coming of age youth. The lush, feathered otherworldly landscape which frames the somber Martian boy in melancholy blues and gentle pinks adds a voyeuristic element to the work while heightening the sense of his underlying vulnerability.
42
FENG ZHENGJIE
b. 1968
China 2005 No. 11, 2005 Oil on canvas. 59 x 59 in. (150 x 150 cm). Signed and dated “Feng Zhengjie 2005” lower right.
Estimate $ 6 0 , 0 0 0 - 8 0 , 0 0 0 PROVENANCE Goedhuis Contemporary, New York; Private collection, Pennsylvania;
Private collection, New York EXHIBITED New York, Goedhuis Contemporary, Born in China, December 9, 2005 -
January 31, 2006 LITERATURE Goedhuis Contemporary, ed., Born in China, New York, 2005, p. 7
(detail illustrated), p. 27 (illustrated)
Feng Zhengjie, one of the brightest rising stars of Chinese contemporary art started his career with the first series of work “Anatomy” around 1992 while he was still a student in Sichuan Fine Art Institute. The reality of today’s Chinese society, the conflicts of traditional and modern mindsets, and the fast paced economic growth with its associated material needs from the mass has been the central topic throughout the artist’s various bodies of work. My works are primarily focused on the massive consuming culture and the effects of a fast changing society on its people’s looks and minds. When I was in school we were very traditional, the education was conservative, being adopted from the soviet methodology. In the mean time, however, there were massive changes outside the school. There was popular music from Hong Kong and Taiwan blasting on the street, everywhere was covered with posters of superstars; this sort of things baffled me. Deep down I was trying to think about profundity but my youth was attracted to popular culture, I was struggling and puzzled because I couldn’t resist it. I wanted to enjoy it but I knew it was shallow and of no importance, a waste of time. My portrait series also contains a significant amount of perplexity, at the beginning I wanted to express the consequences upon individuals as a result of expedited growing society, these effects and influences come from the capitalization within China. The façade of the subject in the portraits are very international, but is the inside of the subject also international? I feel dubious about it. A lot of people ask me why the eyes of the subject look as if they lack engagement, absent-minded and unable to concentrate; when I was creating the portraits I didn’t think of any of these words but all these statements are included and inclined to show how we feel: on one hand we are looking around to discover and are tempted; on the other, we are hazy and intimidated by the wide range of options that we can choose from. Feng Zhengjie, “In Artists’ Eyes,” China Securities Journal, December 2008 (translated from Chinese)
Olafur Eliasson, Moonlight, 2003
INDEX
Aitken, D. 229 Alfred, B. 324 Almond, D. 228 Alÿs, F. 187 Andre, C. 121 Araki, N. 213 Armleder, J. 104 Artschwager, R. 12 Attoe, D. 340 ¸ J. 337 Avotinš, Baechler, D. 301 Balkenhol, S. 189 Banksy 28 Barney, M. 107, 143, 239 Bas, H. 41 Basquiat, J.M. 158, 307 Bell, L. 11 Bleckner, R. 303 Bove, C. 277 Brannon, M. 327 Brown, C. 265 Brown, I.R. 332 Bujnowski, R. 193 Cang, X. 211, 212 Cecchini, L. 298 Clemente, F. 165 Close, C. 133 Colescott, R. 363 Condo, G. 27, 306 Core, S. 108 Cotton, W. 341 Cragg, T. 31, 127 Crewdson, G. 110, 241 Damasceno, J. 171 Davis, G. 302 de Balincourt, J. 39 de Kooning, W. 159, 161 Dr. Lakra 168 Dunham, C. 40, 308 Dzama, M. 339, 349 Eder, M. 252 Eliasson, O. 5, 24, 227 Emin, T. 38 Fang, L. 198 Federle, H. 174, 175 Feng, M. 206 Feng, Z. 42 Fleury, S. 36 Floyer, C. 313 Förg, G. 176 Francis, S. 286 Friedman, T. 216 Fuss, A. 134 Gallagher, E. 253 Gilbert & George 10 Goldin, N. 215 Goldstein, J. 25 Goldsworthy, A. 163 Gonzales, W. 314, 315 Gonzalez-Torres, F. 6 Gorky, A. 160 Grotjahn, M. 103 Grünfeld, T. 275 Guyton\Walker 1 Hafif, M. 185 Hai, B. 202, 203 Halley, P. 128, 130 Hammons, D. 322 Handforth, M. 3 Haring, K. 281 Havekost, E. 194 Hebert, T. 319 Herrera, A. 251 Hesidence, D. 279 Hirst, D. 129 Hodges, J. 124, 246 Horn, R. 295 Hua, J. 207 Hylden, N. 178, 179
Jacquette, J. 257 Jensen, A. 291 Jensen, S. 177, 186 Judd, D. 297 Kallat, J. 335, 336 Kawashima, H. 310 Kelley, M. 117, 120 Kentridge, W. 126 Kilimnik, K. 125 Kim, J. 222 Koh, T. 123 Koons, J. 7 Kusama, Y. 9 LaChapelle, D. 37, 111 Lambie, J. 109 Landers, S. 276, 355 Lasker, J. 271 Lawler, L. 113 Levine, S. 30 Lewitt, S. 13, 283, 284, 285 Lin, T. 200, 201 Lombardi, M. 258, 259, 347, 348 Longo, R. 4 Lucas, S. 219 Lux, L. 240 Maier-Aichen, F. 243 Manglano-Ovalle, I. 320 Mariani, C.M. 191 Martin, A. 149 Martin, C. 325 McCarthy, P. 232, 233, 234 McCracken, J. 15, 105 McDermott & McGough 326, 350 McEwen, A. 359 McGinness, R. 274, 282 Meckseper, J. 181 Meese, J. 188 Melee, R. 328 Minter, M. 140, 333 Mirra, H. 182, 183 Moore, H. 345, 346 Mr. 312, 353 Muniz, V. 217, 218 Nara, Y. 26, 351 Nara, Y. & Shrigley, D. 354 Nash, D. 164 Navarro, I. 101 Neuenschwander, R. 166 Nitsche, F. 184, 190 Noble, T. & Webster, S. 20, 21, 131 Norsten, T. 342, 343 Nozkowski, T. 260 Ocampo, M. 334 Oehlen, A. 29 Opie, J. 132, 150 Orozco, G. 169 Oursler, T. 142 Paine, R. 147, 364 Parker, E. 309 Parrino, S. 139 Paul P. 256 Pettibon, R. 118, 146, 249, 250, 264 Pettibone, R. 288, 289 Pittman, L. 357 Polke, S. 172, 173 Prince, R. 8, 235, 236
Rauschenberg, R. 290 Reyle, A. 22, 114 Rhoades, J. 138 Richter, D. 261 Richter, G. 112 Rickey, G. 122 Roberts, J. 311 Rosenquist, J. 19 Rubins, N. 323 Ruby, S. 102, 362 Ruff, T. 141 Ruppersberg, A. 292 Ruscha, E 14, 17 Rusconi, P. 119 Salcedo, D. 167 Salle, D. 287, 305 Sandback, F. 32 Saunders, M. 338 Scharf, K. 304, 318 Schorr, C. 220 Schumann, C. 356, 361 Seliger, J. 316, 317 Serrano, A. 237, 238 Shaw, J. 329, 344 Sherman, C. 221 Shi, G. 199 Shi, L. 209 Sikander, S. 278 Simmons, L. 223 Simpson, L. 245 Smith, J. 144, 145 Smith, K. 299 Smith, T. 294 Snow, D. 2, 106 Spangler, A. 330, 331 Stockholder, J. 269, 358, 360 Strachan, T. 321 Strunz, K. 35 Sugimoto, H. 214 Sultan, D. 300 Syed, S. 270 Taaffe, P. 262, 263 Tait, N. 268 Takano, A. 352 Tal R 254 Thiel, F. 242 Tillmans, W. 230, 231 Trockel, R. 115 Tuttle, R. 293, 296 Tuymans, L. 192 Tyson, K. 23, 137, 273 Vaisman, M. 170 van Empel, R. 224 Vilmouth, J.L. 244 Vitali, M. 225, 226 von Wulffen, A. 266, 267 Walker, K. 34 Walsh, D. 33 Wang, J. 204 Wang, J. & Zhang, D. 195 Wang, Q. 210 Warhol, A. 16, 18, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157 Waters, J. 136 Webster, S. & Noble, T. 20, 21, 131 West, F. 148, 162 Wiley, K. 255 Williams, S. 116, 280 Woods, R. 272 Wool, C. 135, 247, 248 Ye Y.
205
Zhang, D. 197 Zhang, D. & Wang, J. Zhang, H. 196 Zhu, J. 208 Zobernig, H. 180
195
PHOTOGRAPHS AUCTION 14 NOVEMBER 2009 10am & 1pm Viewing 7 – 13 November
NEW YORK
Phillips de Pury & Company 450 West 15 Street New York 10011 Enquiries +1 212 940 1245 Catalogues +1 212 940 1240 / +44 20 7318 4039 www.phillipsdepury.com
GAVIN BOND Redemption, 2008 Estimate $10,000-15,000
GUIDE FOR PROSPECTIVE BUYERS BUYING AT AUCTION The following pages are designed to offer you information on how to buy at auction at Phillips de Pury & Company. Our staff will be happy to assist you. CONDITIONS OF SALE The Conditions of Sale and Authorship Warranty which appear later in this catalogue govern the auction. Bidders are strongly encouraged to read them as they outline the legal relationship among Phillips, the seller and the buyer and describe the terms upon which property is bought at auction. Please be advised that Phillips de Pury & Company generally acts as agent for the seller. BUYER’S PREMIUM Phillips de Pury & Company charges the successful bidder a commission, or buyer’s premium, on the hammer price of each lot sold. The buyer’s premium is payable by the buyer as part of the total purchase price at the following rates: 25% of the hammer price up to and including $50,000, 20% of the portion of the hammer price above $50,000 up to and including $1,000,000 and 12% of the portion of the hammer price above $1,000,000. 1 PRIOR TO AUCTION Catalogue Subscriptions If you would like to purchase a catalogue for this auction or any other Phillips de Pury & Company sale, please contact us at +1 212 940 1240 or +44 20 7318 4010. Pre-Sale Estimates Pre-Sale estimates are intended as a guide for prospective buyers. Any bid within the high and low estimate range should, in our opinion, offer a chance of success. However, many lots achieve prices below or above the pre-sale estimates. Where “Estimate on Request” appears, please contact the specialist department for further information. It is advisable to contact us closer to the time of the auction as estimates can be subject to revision. Pre-sale estimates do not include the buyer’s premium or any applicable taxes. Pre-Sale Estimates In Pounds Sterling And Euros Although the sale is conducted in US dollars, the pre-sale estimates in the auction catalogues may also be printed in pounds sterling and/or euros. Since the exchange rate is that at the time of catalogue production and not at the date of auction, you should treat estimates in pounds sterling or euros as a guide only. Catalogue Entries Phillips may print in the catalogue entry the history of ownership of a work of art, as well as the exhibition history of the property and references to the work in art publications. While we are careful in the cataloguing process, provenance, exhibition and literature references may not be exhaustive and in some cases we may intentionally refrain from disclosing the identity of previous owners. Please note that all dimensions of the property set forth in the catalogue entry are approximate. Condition Of Lots Our catalogues include references to condition only in the descriptions of multiple works (e.g., prints). Such references, though, do not amount to a full description of condition. The absence of reference to the condition of a lot in the catalogue entry does not imply that the lot is free from faults or imperfections. Solely as a convenience to clients, Phillips de Pury & Company may provide condition reports. In preparing such reports, our specialists assess the condition in a manner appropriate to the estimated value of the property and the nature of the auction in which it is included. While condition reports are prepared honestly and carefully, our staff are not professional restorers or trained conservators. We therefore encourage all prospective buyers to inspect the property at the pre-sale exhibitions and recommend, particularly in the case of any lot of significant value, that you retain your own restorer or professional advisor to report to you on the property’s condition prior to bidding. Any prospective buyer of photographs or prints should always request a condition report because all such property is sold unframed, unless otherwise indicated in the condition report. If a lot is sold framed, Phillips de Pury & Company accepts no liability for the condition of the frame. If we sell any lot unframed, we will be pleased to refer the purchaser to a professional framer. Pre-Auction Viewing Pre-auction viewings are open to the public and free of charge. Our specialists are available to give advice and condition reports at viewings or by appointment. Electrical And Mechanical Lots All lots with electrical and/or mechanical features are sold on the basis of their decorative value only and should not be assumed to be operative. It is essential that, prior to any intended use, the electrical system is verified and approved by a qualified electrician. Symbol Key The following key explains the symbols you may see inside this catalogue. O Guaranteed Property The seller of lots with this symbol has been guaranteed a minimum price. The guarantee may be provided by Phillips de Pury & Company, by a third party or jointly by us and a third party. Phillips de Pury & Company and third parties providing or participating in a guarantee may benefit financially if a guaranteed lot is sold successfully and may incur a loss if the sale is not successful.
∆ Property In Which Phillips De Pury & Company Has An Ownership Interest Lots with this symbol indicate that Phillips de Pury & Company owns the lot in whole or in part or has an economic interest in the lot equivalent to an ownership interest.
•
No Reserve Unless indicated by a , all lots in this catalogue are offered subject to a reserve. A reserve is the confidential value established between Phillips de Pury & Company and the seller and below which a lot may not be sold. The reserve for each lot is generally set at a percentage of the low estimate and will not exceed the low pre-sale estimate.
•
2 BIDDING IN THE SALE Bidding At Auction Bids may be executed during the auction in person by paddle or by telephone or prior to the sale in writing by absentee bid. BIDDING IN PERSON To bid in person, you will need to register for and collect a paddle before the auction begins. Proof of identity in the form of government issued identification will be required, as will an original signature. We may also require that you furnish us with a bank reference. New clients are encouraged to register at least 48 hours in advance of a sale to allow sufficient time for us to process your information. All lots sold will be invoiced to the name and address to which the paddle has been registered and invoices cannot be transferred to other names and addresses. Please do not misplace your paddle. In the event you lose it, inform a Phillips de Pury & Company staff member immediately. At the end of the auction, please return your paddle to the registration desk. Bidding By Telephone If you cannot attend the auction, you may bid live on the telephone with one of our multi-lingual staff members. This service must be arranged at least 24 hours in advance of the sale and is available for lots whose low pre-sale estimate is at least $1000. Telephone bids may be recorded. By bidding on the telephone, you consent to the recording of your conversation. We suggest that you leave a maximum bid, excluding the buyer’s premium and any applicable taxes, which we can execute on your behalf in the event we are unable to reach you by telephone. Absentee Bids If you are unable to attend the auction and cannot participate by telephone, Phillips de Pury & Company will be happy to execute written bids on your behalf. A bidding form can be found at the back of this catalogue. This service is free and confidential. Bids must be placed in the currency of the sale. Our staff will attempt to execute an absentee bid at the lowest possible price taking into account the reserve and other bidders. Always indicate a maximum bid, excluding the buyer’s premium and any applicable taxes. Unlimited bids will not be accepted. Any absentee bid must be received at least 24 hours in advance of the sale. In the event of identical bids, the earliest bid received will take precedence. Employee Bidding Employees of Phillips de Pury & Company and our affiliated companies, including the auctioneer, may bid at the auction by placing absentee bids so long as they do not know the reserve when submitting their absentee bids and otherwise comply with our employee bidding procedures. Bidding Increments Bidding generally opens below the low estimate and advances in increments of up to 10%, subject to the auctioneer’s discretion. Absentee bids that do not conform to the increments set below may be lowered to the next bidding increment. $50 to $1,000 $1,000 to $2,000 $2,000 to $3,000 $3,000 to $5,000 $5,000 to $10,000 $10,000 to $20,000 $20,000 to $30,000 $30,000 to $50,000 $50,000 to $100,000 $100,000 to $200,000 above $200,000
by $50s by $100s by $200s by $200s, 500, 800 (i.e. $4,200, 4,500, 4,800) by $500s by $1,000s by $2,000s by $2,000s, 5,000, 8,000 by $5,000s by $10,000s auctioneer’s discretion
The auctioneer may vary the increments during the course of the auction at his or her own discretion. 3 THE AUCTION Conditions of Sale As noted above, the auction is governed by the Conditions of Sale and Authorship Warranty. All prospective bidders should read them carefully. They may be amended by saleroom addendum or auctioneer’s announcement. Interested Parties Announcement In situations where a person allowed to bid on a lot has a direct or indirect interest in such lot, such as the beneficiary or executor of an estate selling the lot, a joint owner of the lot or a party providing or participating in a guarantee on the lot, Phillips de Pury & Company will make an announcement in the saleroom that interested parties may bid on the lot. Consecutive and Responsive Bidding The auctioneer may open the bidding on any lot by placing a bid on behalf of the seller. The auctioneer may further bid on behalf of the seller up to the amount of the reserve by placing consecutive bids or bids in response to other bidders.
DESIGN AUCTION 14 NOVEMBER 2009 4pm Viewing 7 – 14 November
NEW YORK
Phillips de Pury & Company 450 West 15 Street New York 10011 Enquiries +1 212 940 1268 Catalogues +1 212 940 1240 / +44 20 7318 4039 www.phillipsdepury.com
SHIRO KURAMATA “Acrylic Stool,” 1990 Estimate $70,000-90,000
4 AFTER THE AUCTION Payment Buyers are required to pay for purchases immediately following the auction unless other arrangements are agreed with Phillips de Pury & Company in writing in advance of the sale. Payments must be made in US dollars either by cash, check drawn on a US bank or wire transfer, as noted in Paragraph 6 of the Conditions of Sale. It is our corporate policy not to make or accept single or multiple payments in cash or cash equivalents in excess of US$10,000. Credit Cards As a courtesy to clients, Phillips de Pury & Company will accept American Express, Visa and Mastercard to pay for invoices of $10,000 or less. Collection It is our policy to request proof of identity on collection of a lot. A lot will be released to the buyer or the buyer’s authorized representative when Phillips de Pury & Company has received full and cleared payment and we are not owed any other amount by the buyer. Promptly after the auction, we will transfer all lots to our warehouse located at 29-09 37th Avenue in Long Island City, Queens, New York. All purchased lots should be collected at this location during our regular weekday business hours. As a courtesy to clients, we will upon request transfer purchased lots suitable for hand carry back to our premises at 450 West 15th Street, New York, New York for collection within 30 days following the date of the auction. We will levy removal, interest, storage and handling charges on uncollected lots. Loss or Damage Buyers are reminded that Phillips de Pury & Company accepts liability for loss or damage to lots for a maximum of five days following the auction. Transport and Shipping As a free service for buyers, Phillips de Pury & Company will wrap purchased lots for hand carry only. We will, at the buyer’s expense, either provide packing, handling and shipping services or coordinate with shipping agents instructed by the buyer in order to facilitate such services for property purchased at Phillips de Pury & Company. Please refer to Paragraph 7 of the Conditions of Sale for more information. Export and Import Licenses Before bidding for any property, prospective bidders are advised to make independent inquiries as to whether a license is required to export the property from the United States or to import it into another country. It is the buyer’s sole responsibility to comply with all import and export laws and to obtain any necessary licenses or permits. The denial of any required license or permit or any delay in obtaining such documentation will not justify the cancellation of the sale or any delay in making full payment for the lot. Endangered Species Items made of or incorporating plant or animal material, such as coral, crocodile, ivory, whalebone, rhinoceros horn or tortoiseshell, irrespective of age, percentage or value, may require a license or certificate prior to exportation and additional licenses or certificates upon importation to any foreign country. Please note that the ability to obtain an export license or certificate does not ensure the ability to obtain an import license or certificate in another country, and vice versa. We suggest that prospective bidders check with their own government regarding wildlife import requirements prior to placing a bid. It is the buyer’s sole responsibility to obtain any necessary export or import licenses or certificates as well as any other required documentation. The denial of any required license or certificate or any delay in obtaining such documentation will not justify the cancellation of the sale or any delay in making full payment for the lot.
MODERN & CONTEMPORARY EDITIONS AUCTION 15 NOVEMBER 2009 12pm Viewing 7 – 14 November
NEW YORK
Phillips de Pury & Company 450 West 15 Street New York 10011 Enquiries +1 212 940 1220 Catalogues +1 212 940 1240 / +44 20 7318 4039 www.phillipsdepury.com Various artists, all reproductions are details.
EX
H
IB
IT
IO
H 5 .W 9T 1 T 4 E B
N
O
N
V
W
S AS
V A
-1
4
TT ETEON S
R T HING
13E & W 7
IE
N
V O
EM
B
ER
CONDITIONS OF SALE The Conditions of Sale and Authorship Warranty set forth below govern the relationship between bidders and buyers, on the one hand, and Phillips de Pury & Company and sellers, on the other hand. All prospective buyers should read these Conditions of Sale and Authorship Warranty carefully before bidding. 1 INTRODUCTION Each lot in this catalogue is offered for sale and sold subject to: (a) the Conditions of Sale and Authorship Warranty; (b) additional notices and terms printed in other places in this catalogue, including the Guide for Prospective Buyers, and (c) supplements to this catalogue or other written material posted by Phillips de Pury & Company in the saleroom, in each case as amended by any addendum or announcement by the auctioneer prior to the auction By bidding at the auction, whether in person, through an agent, by written bid, by telephone bid or other means, bidders and buyers agree to be bound by these Conditions of Sale, as so changed or supplemented, and Authorship Warranty. These Conditions of Sale, as so changed or supplemented, and Authorship Warranty contain all the terms on which Phillips de Pury & Company and the seller contract with the buyer. 2 PHILLIPS de PURY & COMPANY AS AGENT Phillips de Pury & Company acts as an agent for the seller, unless otherwise indicated in this catalogue or at the time of auction. On occasion, Phillips de Pury & Company may own a lot, in which case we will act in a principal capacity as a consignor, or may have a legal, beneficial or financial interest in a lot as a secured creditor or otherwise. 3 CATALOGUE DESCRIPTIONS AND CONDITION OF PROPERTY Lots are sold subject to the Authorship Warranty, as described in the catalogue (unless such description is changed or supplemented, as provided in Paragraph 1 above) and in the condition that they are in at the time of the sale on the following basis. (a) The knowledge of Phillips de Pury & Company in relation to each lot is partially dependent on information provided to us by the seller, and Phillips de Pury & Company is not able to and does not carry out exhaustive due diligence on each lot. Prospective buyers acknowledge this fact and accept responsibility for carrying out inspections and investigations to satisfy themselves as to the lots in which they may be interested. Notwithstanding the foregoing, we shall exercise such reasonable care when making express statements in catalogue descriptions or condition reports as is consistent with our role as auctioneer of lots in this sale and in light of (i) the information provided to us by the seller, (ii) scholarship and technical knowledge and (iii) the generally accepted opinions of relevant experts, in each case at the time any such express statement is made. (b) Each lot offered for sale at Phillips de Pury & Company is available for inspection by prospective buyers prior to the auction. Phillips de Pury & Company accepts bids on lots on the basis that bidders (and independent experts on their behalf, to the extent appropriate given the nature and value of the lot and the bidder’s own expertise) have fully inspected the lot prior to bidding and have satisfied themselves as to both the condition of the lot and the accuracy of its description. (c) Prospective buyers acknowledge that many lots are of an age and type which means that they are not in perfect condition. As a courtesy to clients, Phillips de Pury & Company may prepare and provide condition reports to assist prospective buyers when they are inspecting lots. Catalogue descriptions and condition reports may make reference to particular imperfections of a lot, but bidders should note that lots may have other faults not expressly referred to in the catalogue or condition report. All dimensions are approximate. Illustrations are for identification purposes only and cannot be used as precise indications of size or to convey full information as to the actual condition of lots. (d) Information provided to prospective buyers in respect of any lot, including any pre-sale estimate, whether written or oral, and information in any catalogue, condition or other report, commentary or valuation, is not a representation of fact but rather a statement of opinion held by Phillips de Pury & Company. Any pre-sale estimate may not be relied on as a prediction of the selling price or value of the lot and may be revised from time to time by Phillips de Pury & Company in our absolute discretion. Neither Phillips de Pury & Company nor any of our affiliated companies shall be liable for any difference between the pre-sale estimates for any lot and the actual price achieved at auction or upon resale. 4 BIDDING AT AUCTION (a) Phillips de Pury & Company has absolute discretion to refuse admission to the auction or participation in the sale. All bidders must register for a paddle prior to bidding, supplying such information and references as required by Phillips de Pury & Company. (b) As a convenience to bidders who cannot attend the auction in person, Phillips de Pury & Company may, if so instructed by the bidder, execute written absentee bids on a bidder’s behalf. Absentee bidders are required to submit bids on the “Absentee Bid Form,” a copy of which is printed in this catalogue or otherwise available from Phillips de Pury & Company. Bids must be placed in the currency of the sale. The bidder must clearly indicate the maximum amount he or she intends to bid, excluding the buyer’s premium and any applicable sales or use taxes. The auctioneer will not accept an instruction to execute an absentee bid which does not indicate such maximum bid. Our staff will attempt to execute an absentee bid at the lowest possible price taking into account the reserve and other bidders. Any absentee bid must be received at least 24 hours in advance of the sale. In the event of identical bids, the earliest bid received will take precedence.
(c) Telephone bidders are required to submit bids on the “Telephone Bid Form,” a copy of which is printed in this catalogue or otherwise available from Phillips de Pury & Company. Telephone bidding is available for lots whose low pre-sale estimate is at least $1000. Phillips de Pury & Company reserves the right to require written confirmation of a successful bid from a telephone bidder by fax or otherwise immediately after such bid is accepted by the auctioneer. Telephone bids may be recorded and, by bidding on the telephone, a bidder consents to the recording of the conversation. (d) When making a bid, whether in person, by absentee bid or on the telephone, a bidder accepts personal liability to pay the purchase price, as described more fully in Paragraph 6 (a) below, plus all other applicable charges unless it has been explicitly agreed in writing with Phillips de Pury & Company before the commencement of the auction that the bidder is acting as agent on behalf of an identified third party acceptable to Phillips de Pury & Company and that we will only look to the principal for such payment. (e) Arranging absentee and telephone bids is a free service provided by Phillips de Pury & Company to prospective buyers. While we undertake to exercise reasonable care in undertaking such activity, we cannot accept liability for failure to execute such bids except where such failure is caused by our willful misconduct. (f) Employees of Phillips de Pury & Company and our affiliated companies, including the auctioneer, may bid at the auction by placing absentee bids so long as they do not know the reserve when submitting their absentee bids and otherwise comply with our employee bidding procedures. 5 CONDUCT OF THE AUCTION each lot is offered subject to a (a) Unless otherwise indicated by the symbol reserve, which is the confidential minimum selling price agreed by Phillips de Pury & Company with the seller. The reserve will not exceed the low pre-sale estimate at the time of the auction.
•
(b)The auctioneer has discretion at any time to refuse any bid, withdraw any lot, reoffer a lot for sale (including after the fall of the hammer) if he or she believes there may be error or dispute and take such other action as he or she deems reasonably appropriate. (c) The auctioneer will commence and advance the bidding at levels and in increments he or she considers appropriate. In order to protect the reserve on any lot, the auctioneer may place one or more bids on behalf of the seller up to the reserve without indicating he or she is doing so, either by placing consecutive bids or bids in response to other bidders. (d) The sale will be conducted in US dollars and payment is due in US dollars. For the benefit of international clients, pre-sale estimates in the auction catalogue may be shown in pounds sterling and/or euros and, if so, will reflect approximate exchange rates. Accordingly, estimates in pounds sterling or euros should be treated only as a guide. (e) Subject to the auctioneer’s reasonable discretion, the highest bidder accepted by the auctioneer will be the buyer and the striking of the hammer marks the acceptance of the highest bid and the conclusion of a contract for sale between the seller and the buyer. Risk and responsibility for the lot passes to the buyer as set forth in Paragraph 7 below. (f) If a lot is not sold, the auctioneer will announce that it has been “passed,” “withdrawn,” “returned to owner” or “bought-in.” (g) Any post-auction sale of lots offered at auction shall incorporate these Conditions of Sale and Authorship Warranty as if sold in the auction. 6 PURCHASE PRICE AND PAYMENT (a) The buyer agrees to pay us, in addition to the hammer price of the lot, the buyer’s premium and any applicable sales tax (the “Purchase Price”). The buyer’s premium is 25% of the hammer price up to and including $50,000, 20% of the portion of the hammer price above $50,000 up to and including $1,000,000 and 12% of the portion of the hammer price above $1,000,000. (b) Sales tax, use tax and excise and other taxes are payable in accordance with applicable law. All prices, fees, charges and expenses set out in these Conditions of Sale are quoted exclusive of applicable taxes. Phillips de Pury & Company will only accept valid resale certificates from US dealers as proof of exemption from sales tax. All foreign buyers should contact the Client Accounting Department about tax matters. (c) Unless otherwise agreed, a buyer is required to pay for a purchased lot immediately following the auction regardless of any intention to obtain an export or import license or other permit for such lot. Payments must be made by the invoiced party in US dollars either by cash, check drawn on a US bank or wire transfer, as follows: (i) Phillips de Pury & Company will accept payment in cash provided that the total amount paid in cash or cash equivalents does not exceed US$10,000. Buyers paying in cash should do so in person at our Client Accounting Desk at 450 West 15th Street, Third Floor, during regular weekday business hours. (ii) Personal checks and banker’s drafts are accepted if drawn on a US bank and the buyer provides to us acceptable government issued identification. Checks and banker’s drafts should be made payable to “Phillips de Pury & Company LLC.” If payment is sent by mail, please send the check or banker’s draft to the attention of the Client Accounting Department at 450 West 15th Street, New York, NY 10011 and make sure that the sale and lot number is written on the check. Checks or banker’s drafts drawn by third parties will not be accepted.
(iii) Payment by wire transfer may be sent directly to Phillips de Pury & Company. Bank transfer details: Citibank 322 West 23rd Street, New York, NY 10011 SWIFT Code: CITIUS33 ABA Routing: 021 000 089 For the account of Phillips de Pury & Company LLC Account no.: 58347736 Please reference the relevant sale and lot number. (d) Title in a purchased lot will not pass until Phillips de Pury & Company has received the Purchase Price for that lot in cleared funds. Phillips de Pury & Company is not obliged to release a lot to the buyer until title in the lot has passed and appropriate identification has been provided, and any earlier release does not affect the passing of title or the buyer’s unconditional obligation to pay the Purchase Price. 7 COLLECTION OF PROPERTY (a) Phillips de Pury & Company will not release a lot to the buyer until we have received payment of its Purchase Price in full in cleared funds, the buyer has paid all outstanding amounts due to Phillips de Pury & Company or any of our affiliated companies, including any charges payable pursuant to Paragraph 8 (a) below, and the buyer has satisfied such other terms as we in our sole discretion shall require, including completing any anti-money laundering or anti-terrorism financing checks. As soon as a buyer has satisfied all of the foregoing conditions, he or she should contact our Shipping Department at +1 212 940 1372 or +1 212 940 1373 to arrange for collection of purchased property. (b) The buyer must arrange for collection of a purchased lot within five days of the date of the auction. Promptly after the auction, we will transfer all lots to our warehouse located at 29-09 37th Avenue in Long Island City, Queens, New York. All purchased lots should be collected at this location during our regular weekday business hours. As a courtesy to clients, Phillips de Pury & Company will upon request transfer on a bi-weekly basis purchased lots suitable for hand carry back to our premises at 450 West 15th Street, New York, New York for collection within 30 days following the date of the auction. Purchased lots are at the buyer’s risk, including the responsibility for insurance, from the earlier to occur of (i) the date of collection or (ii) five days after the auction. Until risk passes, Phillips de Pury & Company will compensate the buyer for any loss or damage to a purchased lot up to a maximum of the Purchase Price paid, subject to our usual exclusions for loss or damage to property. (c) As a courtesy to clients, Phillips de Pury & Company will, without charge, wrap purchased lots for hand carry only. We will, at the buyer’s expense, either provide packing, handling, insurance and shipping services or coordinate with shipping agents instructed by the buyer in order to facilitate such services for property bought at Phillips de Pury & Company. Any such instruction, whether or not made at our recommendation, is entirely at the buyer’s risk and responsibility, and we will not be liable for acts or omissions of third party packers or shippers. Third party shippers should contact us by telephone at +1 212 940 1376 or by fax at +1 212 924 6477 at least 24 hours in advance of collection in order to schedule pickup. (d) Phillips de Pury & Company will require presentation of government issued identification prior to release of a lot to the buyer or the buyer’s authorized representative. 8 FAILURE TO COLLECT PURCHASES (a) If the buyer pays the Purchase Price but fails to collect a purchased lot within 30 days of the auction, the buyer will incur a late collection fee of $35, storage charges of $5 per day and pro rated insurance charges of .1% of the Purchase Price per month on each uncollected lot. (b) If a purchased lot is paid for but not collected within six months of the auction, the buyer authorizes Phillips de Pury & Company, upon notice, to arrange a resale of the item by auction or private sale, with estimates and a reserve set at Phillips de Pury & Company’s reasonable discretion. The proceeds of such sale will be applied to pay for storage charges and any other outstanding costs and expenses owed by the buyer to Phillips de Pury & Company or our affiliated companies and the remainder will be forfeited unless collected by the buyer within two years of the original auction. 9 REMEDIES FOR NON-PAYMENT (a) Without prejudice to any rights the seller may have, if the buyer without prior agreement fails to make payment of the Purchase Price for a lot in cleared funds within five days of the auction, Phillips de Pury & Company may in our sole discretion exercise one or more of the following remedies: (i) store the lot at Phillips de Pury & Company’s premises or elsewhere at the buyer’s sole risk and expense at the same rates as set forth in Paragraph 8 (a) above; (ii) cancel the sale of the lot, retaining any partial payment of the Purchase Price as liquidated damages; (iii) reject future bids from the buyer or render such bids subject to payment of a deposit; (iv) charge interest at 12% per annum from the date payment became due until the date the Purchase Price is received in cleared funds; (v) subject to notification of the buyer, exercise a lien over any of the buyer’s property which is in the possession of Phillips de Pury & Company and instruct our affiliated companies to exercise a lien over any of the buyer’s property which is in their possession and, in each case, no earlier than 30 days from the date of such notice, arrange the sale of such property and apply the proceeds to the amount owed to Phillips de Pury & Company or any of our affiliated companies after the deduction from sale proceeds of our standard vendor’s commission and all sale-related expenses; (vi) resell the lot by auction or private sale, with estimates and a reserve set at Phillips de Pury & Company’s reasonable discretion, it being understood that in the event such resale is for less than the original hammer price and buyer’s premium for that lot, the buyer will remain liable for the shortfall together with all costs incurred in such resale; (vii) commence legal proceedings to recover the hammer price and buyer’s premium for that lot, together with interest and the costs of
such proceedings; or (viii) release the name and address of the buyer to the seller to enable the seller to commence legal proceedings to recover the amounts due and legal costs. (b) As security to us for full payment by the buyer of all outstanding amounts due to Phillips de Pury & Company and our affiliated companies, Phillips de Pury & Company retains, and the buyer grants to us, a security interest in each lot purchased at auction by the buyer and in any other property or money of the buyer in, or coming into, our possession or the possession of one of our affiliated companies. We may apply such money or deal with such property as the Uniform Commercial Code or other applicable law permits a secured creditor to do. In the event that we exercise a lien over property in our possession because the buyer is in default to one of our affiliated companies, we will so notify the buyer. Our security interest in any individual lot will terminate upon actual delivery of the lot to the buyer or the buyer’s agent. (c) In the event the buyer is in default of payment to any of our affiliated companies, the buyer also irrevocably authorizes Phillips de Pury & Company to pledge the buyer’s property in our possession by actual or constructive delivery to our affiliated company as security for the payment of any outstanding amount due. Phillips de Pury & Company will notify the buyer if the buyer’s property has been delivered to an affiliated company by way of pledge. 10 RESCISSION BY PHILLIPS de PURY & COMPANY Phillips de Pury & Company shall have the right, but not the obligation, to rescind a sale without notice to the buyer if we reasonably believe that there is a material breach of the seller’s representations and warranties or the Authorship Warranty or an adverse claim is made by a third party. Upon notice of Phillips de Pury & Company’s election to rescind the sale, the buyer will promptly return the lot to Phillips de Pury & Company, and we will then refund the Purchase Price paid to us. As described more fully in Paragraph 13 below, the refund shall constitute the sole remedy and recourse of the buyer against Phillips de Pury & Company and the seller with respect to such rescinded sale. 11 EXPORT, IMPORT AND ENDANGERED SPECIES LICENSES AND PERMITS Before bidding for any property, prospective buyers are advised to make their own inquiries as to whether a license is required to export a lot from the United States or to import it into another country. Prospective buyers are advised that some countries prohibit the import of property made of or incorporating plant or animal material, such as coral, crocodile, ivory, whalebone, rhinoceros horn or tortoiseshell, irrespective of age, percentage or value. Accordingly, prior to bidding, prospective buyers considering export of purchased lots should familiarize themselves with relevant export and import regulations of the countries concerned. It is solely the buyer’s responsibility to comply with these laws and to obtain any necessary export, import and endangered species licenses or permits. Failure to obtain a license or permit or delay in so doing will not justify the cancellation of the sale or any delay in making full payment for the lot. 12 CLIENT INFORMATION In connection with the management and operation of our business and the marketing and supply of auction related services, or as required by law, we may ask clients to provide personal information about themselves or obtain information about clients from third parties (e.g., credit information). If clients provide us with information that is defined by law as “sensitive,” they agree that Phillips de Pury & Company and our affiliated companies may use it for the above purposes. Phillips de Pury & Company and our affiliated companies will not use or process sensitive information for any other purpose without the client’s express consent. If you would like further information on our policies on personal data or wish to make corrections to your information, please contact us at +1 212 940 1228. If you would prefer not to receive details of future events please call the above number. 13 LIMITATION OF LIABILITY (a) Subject to subparagraph (e) below, the total liability of Phillips de Pury & Company, our affiliated companies and the seller to the buyer in connection with the sale of a lot shall be limited to the Purchase Price actually paid by the buyer for the lot. (b) Except as otherwise provided in this Paragraph 13, none of Phillips de Pury & Company, any of our affiliated companies or the seller (i) is liable for any errors or omissions, whether orally or in writing, in information provided to prospective buyers by Phillips de Pury & Company or any of our affiliated companies or (ii) accepts responsibility to any bidder in respect of acts or omissions, whether negligent or otherwise, by Phillips de Pury & Company or any of our affiliated companies in connection with the conduct of the auction or for any other matter relating to the sale of any lot. (c) All warranties other than the Authorship Warranty, express or implied, including any warranty of satisfactory quality and fitness for purpose, are specifically excluded by Phillips de Pury & Company, our affiliated companies and the seller to the fullest extent permitted by law. (d) Subject to subparagraph (e) below, none of Phillips de Pury & Company, any of our affiliated companies or the seller shall be liable to the buyer for any loss or damage beyond the refund of the Purchase Price referred to in subparagraph (a) above, whether such loss or damage is characterized as direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential, or for the payment of interest on the Purchase Price to the fullest extent permitted by law. (e) No provision in these Conditions of Sale shall be deemed to exclude or limit the liability of Phillips de Pury & Company or any of our affiliated companies to the buyer in respect of any fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation made by any of us or in respect of death or personal injury caused by our negligent acts or omissions. 14 COPYRIGHT The copyright in all images, illustrations and written materials produced by or for
Phillips de Pury & Company relating to a lot, including the contents of this catalogue, is and shall remain at all times the property of Phillips de Pury & Company and such images and materials may not be used by the buyer or any other party without our prior written consent. Phillips de Pury & Company and the seller make no representations or warranties that the buyer of a lot will acquire any copyright or other reproduction rights in it. 15 GENERAL (a) These Conditions of Sale, as changed or supplemented as provided in Paragraph 1 above, and Authorship Warranty set out the entire agreement between the parties with respect to the transactions contemplated herein and supersede all prior and contemporaneous written, oral or implied understandings, representations and agreements. (b) Notices to Phillips de Pury & Company shall be in writing and addressed to the department in charge of the sale, quoting the reference number specified at the beginning of the sale catalogue. Notices to clients shall be addressed to the last address notified by them in writing to Phillips de Pury & Company. (c) These Conditions of Sale are not assignable by any buyer without our prior written consent but are binding on the buyer’s successors, assigns and representatives. (d) Should any provision of these Conditions of Sale be held void, invalid or unenforceable for any reason, the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect. No failure by any party to exercise, nor any delay in exercising, any right or remedy under these Conditions of Sale shall act as a waiver or release thereof in whole or in part. 16 LAW AND JURISDICTION (a) ThThe rights and obligations of the parties with respect to these Conditions of Sale and Authorship Warranty, the conduct of the auction and any matters related to any of the foregoing shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with laws of the State of New York, excluding its conflicts of law rules. (b) Phillips de Pury & Company, all bidders and all sellers agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the (i) state courts of the State of New York located in New York City and (ii) the federal courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York to settle all disputes arising in connection with all aspects of all matters or transactions to which these Conditions of Sale and Authorship Warranty relate or apply. (c) All bidders and sellers irrevocably consent to service of process or any other documents in connection with proceedings in any court by facsimile transmission, personal service, delivery by mail or in any other manner permitted by New York law or the law of the place of service, at the last address of the bidder or seller known to Phillips de Pury & Company.
AUTHORSHIP WARRANTY Phillips de Pury & Company warrants the authorship of property in this auction catalogue for a period of five years from date of sale by Phillips de Pury & Company, subject to the exclusions and limitations set forth below. (a) Phillips de Pury & Company gives this Authorship Warranty only to the original buyer of record (i.e., the registered successful bidder) of any lot. This Authorship Warranty does not extend to (i) subsequent owners of the property, including purchasers or recipients by way of gift from the original buyer, heirs, successors, beneficiaries and assigns; (ii) property created prior to 1870, unless the property is determined to be counterfeit (defined as a forgery made less than 50 years ago with an intent to deceive) and has a value at the date of the claim under this warranty which is materially less than the Purchase Price paid; (iii) property where the description in the catalogue states that there is a conflict of opinion on the authorship of the property; (iv) property where our attribution of authorship was on the date of sale consistent with the generally accepted opinions of specialists, scholars or other experts; or (v) property whose description or dating is proved inaccurate by means of scientific methods or tests not generally accepted for use at the time of the publication of the catalogue or which were at such time deemed unreasonably expensive or impractical to use. (b) In any claim for breach of the Authorship Warranty, Phillips de Pury & Company reserves the right, as a condition to rescinding any sale under this warranty, to require the buyer to provide to us at the buyer’s expense the written opinions of two recognized experts approved in advance by Phillips de Pury & Company. We shall not be bound by any expert report produced by the buyer and reserve the right to consult our own experts at our expense. If Phillips de Pury & Company agrees to rescind a sale under the Authorship Warranty, we shall refund to the buyer the reasonable costs charged by the experts commissioned by the buyer and approved in advance by us. (c) Subject to the exclusions set forth in subparagraph (a) above, the buyer may bring a claim for breach of the Authorship Warranty provided that (i) he or she has notified Phillips de Pury & Company in writing within three months of receiving any information which causes the buyer to question the authorship of the lot, specifying the auction in which the property was included, the lot number in the auction catalogue and the reasons why the authorship of the lot is being questioned and (ii) the buyer returns the lot to Phillips de Pury & Company in the same condition as at the time of its auction and is able to transfer good and marketable title in the lot free from any third party claim arising after the date of the auction. (d) The buyer understands and agrees that the exclusive remedy for any breach of the Authorship Warranty shall be rescission of the sale and refund of the original Purchase Price paid. This remedy shall constitute the sole remedy and recourse of the buyer against Phillips de Pury & Company, any of our affiliated companies and the seller and is in lieu of any other remedy available as a matter of law. This means that
none of Phillips de Pury & Company, any of our affiliated companies or the seller shall be liable for loss or damage beyond the remedy expressly provided in this Authorship Warranty, whether such loss or damage is characterized as direct, indirect, special, incidental or consequential, or for the payment of interest on the original Purchase Price.
PHILLIPS de PURY & COMPANY
Chairman
Senior Partners
Advisory Board
Simon de Pury
Michael McGinnis
Maria Bell
Dr. Michaela Neumeister
Janna Bullock
Chief Executive Officer
Lisa Eisner
Bernd Runge
Partners
Lapo Elkann
Aileen Agopian
Ben Elliot
Sean Cleary
Lady Elena Foster
Alexander Payne
H.I.H. Francesca von Habsburg
Rodman Primack
Marc Jacobs
Olivier Vrankenne
Malcolm McLaren
Tiffany Wood
Ernest Mourmans Aby Rosen Christiane zu Salm Princess Gloria vonThurn undTaxis Jean Michel Wilmotte Anita Zabludowicz
WORLDWIDE OFFICES NEW YORK
PARIS
BERLIN
450 West 15 Street NewYork NY 10011 USA
C/O Pro First 15 Rue de la Paix 75002 Paris France
Auguststrasse 19 10117 Berlin Germany
+1 212 940 1200 +1 212 924 5403 fax
+33 1 42 78 67 77 +33 1 42 78 23 07 fax
+49 30 880 018 42 +49 30 880 018 43 fax
LONDON
MUNICH
GENEVA
Howick Place London SW1P 1BB United Kingdom
Maximiliansplatz 12a 80333 Munich Germany
23, quai des Bergues 1201 Geneva Switzerland
+44 20 7318 4010 +44 20 7318 4011 fax
+49 89 238 88 48 0 +49 89 238 88 48 15 fax
+41 22 906 80 00 +41 22 906 80 01 fax
SPECIALIST AND SERVICE DEPARTMENTS
CONTEMPORARY ART NEW YORK
MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY EDITIONS NEW YORK
+1 212 940 1254
Kelly Troester, Worldwide Co-Director
+1 212 940 1221
Aileen Agopian, New York Director
+1 212 940 1255
Cary Leibowitz, Worldwide Co-Director
+1 212 940 1222
Jean-Michel Placent
+1 212 940 1263
Jannah Greenblatt
+1 212 940 1332
Timothy Malyk
+1 212 940 1258
Joy Deibert
+1 212 940 1333
Chin-Chin Yap
+1 212 940 1250
Sarah Mudge, Head of Part II, New York
+1 212 940 1259
Roxana Bruno
+1 212 940 1229
Sara Davidson
+1 212 940 1262
Nazgol Jahan, Worldwide Director
+1 212 940 1283
+1 212 940 1261
Carmela Manoli
+1 212 940 1302
Heather Zises
+1 212 940 1290
Michael McGinnis, Worldwide Director
Maria Bueno Peter Flores
+1 212 940 1223
(Uli) Zhiheng Huang
+1 212 940 1288
Eugenia Ballvé
+1 212 940 1303
LONDON Anthony McNerney, Head of Evening Sale, London
+44 20 7318 4067
Peter Sumner, Head of Day Sale, London
+44 20 7318 4063
Laetitia Catoir
+44 20 7318 4064
Silke Taprogge
+44 20 7318 4012
Ivgenia Naiman
+44 20 7318 4071
Fiona Biberstein
+44 20 7318 4013
Siobhan O’Connor
+44 20 7318 4093
Catherine Higgs
+44 20 7318 4089
Raphael Lepine
+44 20 7318 4078
Tanya Tikhnenko
+44 20 7318 4065
Sarah Buchwald
+44 20 7318 4085
Phillippa Willison
+44 20 7318 4070
DESIGN NEW YORK Marcus Tremonto
+1 212 940 1268
Alex Heminway, New York Director
+1 212 940 1269
Tara DeWitt
+1 212 940 1265
Meaghan Roddy
+1 212 940 1266
Stephanie Abraitis
+1 212 940 1268
LONDON Alexander Payne, Worldwide Director
+44 20 7318 4052
Ben Williams
+44 20 7318 4027
Domenico Raimondo
+44 20 7318 4016
Ellen Stelter
+44 20 7318 4021
Marcus McDonald
+44 20 7318 4014
JEWELRY NEW YORK
GENEVA Carolin Bulgari
+41 22 906 80 00
Veronica Lota
+41 22 906 80 05
LONDON Lane McLean
+44 20 7318 4032
THEME SALES Tiffany Wood, Worldwide Director NEW Corey Barr, New York Manager Anne Huntington Stephanie Max Steve Agin, Consultant
+49 30 880 018 42 YORK +1 212 940 1234 +1 212 940 1210 +1 212 940 1301 +1 908 475 1796
LONDON Tobias Sirtl, London Manager
+44 20 7318 4095
Arianna Jacobs
+44 20 7318 4054
George O’Dell
+44 20 7318 4040
CHAIRMAN LONDON Rodman Primack +44 20 7318 4017 MANAGING DIRECTORS Finn Dombernowsky, London +44 20 7318 4034 Charlie Horne, New York +1 212 940 1292 PRIVATE SALES Christina Scheublein +1 212 940 1248
PARIS Johanna Frydman
+33 1 42 78 67 77
PHOTOGRAPHS NEW YORK
INTERNATIONAL SPECIALISTS AND REPRESENTATIVES
Vanessa Kramer, New York Director
+ 1 212 940 1243
Berlin & Munich Dr. Michaela Neumeister
Shlomi Rabi
+ 1 212 940 1246
Brussels & Paris Olivier Vrankenne
+32 486 43 43 44 +33 6 85 53 92 03
+49 89 238 88 48 10
Caroline Shea
+ 1 212 940 1247
Paris Leonie Moschner
Sarah Krueger
+ 1 212 940 1245
London Ivgenia Naiman
+44 20 7318 4071
Charlie Scheips, International Consulting Director
+ 1 212 940 1245
Brooke de Ocampo
+44 777 551 7060
Carol Ehlers, Consultant
+ 1 212 940 1245
Los Angeles Mimi Won Techentin
LONDON Lou Proud
+44 20 7318 4018
Maya McLaughlin Milan Laura Garbarino
+1 310 600 9192 +1 323 791 1771 +39 339 478 9671
Sebastien Montabonel
+44 20 7318 4025
Eugenia Bertelè
+39 02 3669 5895
Alexandra Bibby
+44 20 7318 4087
Moscow Svetlana Marich
+7 495 225 88 22
Helen Hayman
+44 20 7318 4092
Shanghai/Beijing Jeremy Wingfield
+86 135 0118 2804
SALE INFORMATION
AUCTIONS Part I Sale, Thursday November 12 2009 at 7pm Part II Sale, Friday November 13 2009 at 10am & 2pm VIEWING Saturday 7 November 10am – 6pm Sunday 8 November 12pm – 6pm Monday 9 November 10am – 6pm Tuesday 10 November 10am – 6pm Wednesday 11 November 10am – 6pm Thursday 12 November 10am – 12pm VIEWING & AUCTION LOCATION 450 West 15 Street New York NY 10011 SALE DESIGNATION In sending written bids or making inquiries please refer to this sale as NY010409 or Contemporary Art Part I Sale and NY010509 or Contemporary Art Part II Sale. WORLDWIDE DIRECTOR Michael McGinnis +1 212 940 1254 NEW YORK DIRECTOR Aileen Agopian +1 212 940 1255 SPECIALISTS Jean-Michel Placent New York +1 212 940 1263 Timothy Malyk +1 212 940 1258 Chin-Chin Yap New York +1 212 940 1250 Sarah Mudge New York Head of Part II +1 212 940 1259 Dr. Michaela Neumeister Munich +49 89 238 88 48 10 Olivier Vrankenne Brussels & Paris +32 486 43 43 44 Laura Garbarino Milan +39 339 478 9671 Leonie Moschner Paris +33 6 85 53 92 03 Brooke de Ocampo London +44 777 551 7060 Anthony McNerney Head of Evening Sale London +44 20 7318 4067 Peter Sumner Head of Day Sale London +44 20 7318 4063 Laetitia Catoir London + 44 20 7318 4064 Silke Taprogge London +44 20 7318 4012 Rodman Primack London +44 20 7318 4017 Ivgenia Naiman London +44 20 7318 4071 Fiona Biberstein London +44 20 7318 4013 Nadia Breuer Sopher New York & Australia +1 917 319 4741 Mimi Won Techentin Los Angeles +1 310 600 9192 Maya McLaughlin Los Angeles +1 323 791 1771 Jeremy Wingfield Shanghai/Beijing +86 135 0118 2804 BUSINESS MANAGER Roxana Bruno +1 212 940 1229 CATALOGUER PART I Sara Davidson +1 212 940 1262 CATALOGUER PART II Maria Bueno +1 212 940 1261 ADMINISTRATOR PART I Peter Flores +1 212 940 1223 ADMINISTRATOR PART II (Uli) Zhiheng Huang +1 212 940 1288
Front Cover Andy Warhol, Brillo Box, 1964, Lot 16 (detail) Title Page Olafur Eliasson, 1m3 light, 1999, Lot 5 Back Cover Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Nets (T.W.A.), 2000, Lot 9 (detail)
ADMINISTRATOR Eugenia Ballve +1 212 940 1303 PROPERTY MANAGERS Jeffrey Rausch +1 212 940 1367 Barrett Langlinais +1 212 940 1362 PHOTOGRAPHY Kent Pell, Morten Smidt CATALOGUES Allyson Melchor +44 20 7318 4039 +1 212 940 1240 Catalogues $60 at the Gallery/£30 catalogues@phillipsdepury.com ABSENTEE AND TELEPHONE BIDS Rebecca Lynn +1 212 940 1228 +1 212 924 1749 fax bids@phillipsdepury.com CLIENT ACCOUNTING Sylvia Leitao +1 212 940 1231 Buyers Accounts Nicole Rodriguez +1 212 940 1235 Seller Accounts Barbara Doupal +1 212 940 1232 Nadia Somwaru +1 212 940 1280 CLIENT SERVICES +1 212 940 1200 SHIPPING Steve Orridge +1 Beth Petriello +1 Jennifer Brennan Robert Rogan +1
212 940 1370 212 940 1373 +1 212 940 1372 212 940 1374
PRINCIPAL AUCTIONEER Simon de Pury 0874341 AUCTIONEERS Aileen Agopian 1199037 Sarah Mudge 1301805 Alexander Gilkes 1308958 Ellen Stelter UK Rodman Primack UK E-MAIL ADDRESSES All Phillips de Pury & Company e-mails are first initial and last name @phillipsdepury.com (e.g., mmcginnis@phillipsdepury.com) www.phillipsdepury.com Please note that all lots are offered and sold subject to (i) the Standard Terms and Conditions, and (ii) Special Terms and Conditions applicable to this sale as described within this sale catalogue. The Standard Terms and Conditions and Special Terms and Conditions should be fully read and understood prior to bidding at the auction. All lots are sold “AS-IS.” All lots are offered subject to a reserve unless otherwise indicated.
CONTEMPORARY ART 12 & 13 NOVEMBER
CONTEMPORARY ART
2009 N EW YOR K NY 010 4 0 9/ NY 010 5 0 9
W W W. P H I L L I P S D E P U RY.C O M
12 & 13
NOVEMBER
2009
NEW YORK