Far Away and Close @ Castelli Gallery, NYC with John Chamberlain, Hanne Darboven, Jasper Johns, Robert Morris, Mike and Doug Starn, Lawrence Weiner

FAR AWAY and CLOSE

John Chamberlain, Hanne Darboven, Jasper Johns, Robert Morris, Mike and Doug Starn, Lawrence Weiner

Castelli Gallery, New York

September 29 – November 23, 2022

Castelli Gallery presents FAR AWAY and CLOSE, a group exhibition with works by John Chamberlain, Hanne Darboven, Jasper Johns, Robert Morris, Mike and Doug Starn, and Lawrence Weiner.

The works in the exhibition are realized in a variety of sizes and mediums. Yet, a shared interest in the concept of location, intended both as physical space and a space of mind is what brings them together.

Lawrence Weiner’s Untitled, 1999, a set of six works on paper, showcase the use of tangible space and direction; while the reoccurring phrase, “Caught by ships passing in the night” resonates a feeling of being lost in the metaphorical space. If the work reminds us of movement in space, Hanne Darboven 12 months with Postcards from Today of Horses, 1982, consisting of 12 framed pages of months from the 1982 calendar, remind us of movement in time. Additionally, Hanne Darboven’s collage shows her use of the word heute (“now”) seen across her oeuvre, which she proceeds to cross out, leaving the viewer unsure of the place in time.

A group of John Chamberlain’s collages from View from the Cockpit series show an improbable landscape, at the horizon, as improbable is the landscape in the Mike and Doug Starn photo-collage The No Mind Not Thinks solstil, 2013 and the drawing by Robert Morris 10 Mirrors in a Landscape, 1997. These abstract horizon lines portray an uncertainty in place as it relates to space and time.

Another work by Robert Morris, 1934 Mid-West Dust Storm, 2010, consisting of a drawing made of Epoxy on three aluminum panels, depicts a terrifying sand storm in the Mid-West, something dating from the time he was a child.  This memory of things past reappears in two Untitled drawings by Jasper Johns, in which the artist is including the floorplan of the house where he spent part of his childhood and a reference to the four seasons. In both instances, these recalls in memory showcase the artists’ location at a specific time and place which allows them to return to them through drawing.  

A location can be far away from us, or close. Above all, a location can be a place in the mind, and as such change constantly. Robert Morris Untitled (Location), 1963-1973, contains four mechanisms that requires the installer to manually change the distance depending on where the work is placed on the wall. By creating a work that has the ability to change depending on the space, it evokes a sense of no absolute location.

By bringing together this group of works, the exhibition hopes to bring attention to the similarities between physical space and time when compared to the figurative concept of space of mind.

CASTELLI GALLERY

24 West 40th Street, New York, NY 10018

www.castelligallery.com

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20th Century & Contemporary Art Sales @ Phillips, New York & Online

20th Century & Contemporary Art Sales
Phillips, New York
July 2, 2020

JOAN MITCHELL

Noël, 1961-1962

Estimate: $9,500,000 – 12,500,000

© The Estate of Joan Mitchell, Courtesy of Phillips

Phillips announces its forthcoming 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York City via livestream to bidders worldwide on July 2, 2020 at 5pm EDT. The sale will debut an enriched digital experience on Phillips.com, including augmented multimedia content, enhanced visuals, and art historical and market analysis that will allow for deep viewer engagement. A dynamic live auction streamed on their online platform will bring the live auction experience to collectors and viewers around the world using a virtual international bidding room of Phillips specialists.

“Phillips has been at the forefront of identifying the future of the bidding and buying experience online with the ability to bid on our app along with live streaming for nearly half a decade. We’re thrilled to bring our marquee Evening Sale to collectors worldwide in a format that will capture the intimacy and excitement of being in the room,” states Jean-Paul Engelen, Phillips Deputy Chairman and Worldwide Co-Head of 20th Century & Contemporary Art.

Featuring more than 20 lots, the sale includes works by artists highly sought after in today’s market including Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler, Gerhard Richter, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Matthew Wong, David Hammons, Amoako Boafo, Albert Oehlen, Lucas Arruda, Christina Quarles, Charles White, Banksy, KAWS and others.

“The works presented in our 20th Century & Contemporary Sale mark the bellwether of the art market today, featuring artists who have demonstrated collector demand across the globe with a focus on African American, female, and cutting-edge contemporary artists,” states Robert Manley, Phillips Deputy Chairman and Worldwide Co-Head of 20th Century & Contemporary Art.

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT

Victor 25448, 1987

Valued at $10 million

© The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Courtesy of Phillips

Evening Sale Highlights

Two superlative works by artists of the 20th century include Joan Mitchell’s Noël and Helen Frankenthaler’s Head of the Meadow. An exceptional 1994 painting by Gerhard Richter hails from the height of his abstract period coincides with the highly regarded retrospective currently at the Met Breuer, Gerhard Richter: Painting After All.

Following the house’s stellar result for Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Flexible, which sold for more than $43 million in 2018 more than doubling the pre-sale low estimate of $20 million, Phillips will offer an impressive work executed in 1987, just one year before his untimely death. Last offered publicly more than a decade ago, Victor 25448 captures the singular coalescence of text and imagery that is a hallmark of the artist’s celebrated practice.

An Old Master replica tagged with a stenciled monkey guzzling gasoline from a child’s juice box represents a significant work by master-interventionist Banksy to come to auction this season from his Crude Oil series. Fellow disruptor KAWS is represented with a large-scale early Companion painting from 2000.

BANSKY

Monkey Poison, 2004

Estimate: $1,800,000 – 2,500,000

© Bansky, Courtesy of Phillips

On the heels of Phillips’ strong debut offering of American art in the 20th Century & Contemporary Sales with Norman Rockwell’s Before the Shot in November 2019, marking the first time the artist was ever included in a 20th Century and Contemporary Evening Sale and achieving a price of $4.7 million, this sale will offer a rare, never publicly-seen painting by Maxfield Parrish. Humpty Dumpty, 1921, hailing from The du Pont Family, captures the technical prowess and imagery which hovers between popular kitsch and surreal that has cemented the artist’s position as the “Grand Pop” of American Pop Art by Time magazine.

MAXFIELD PARRISH

Humpty Dumpty, 1921

Estimate: $400,000 – 600,000

© The Estate of Maxfield Parrish, Courtesy of Phillips

Phillips continues to debut artists with significant primary market following to auction. This season the sale will feature a painting by Matthew Wong, the self-taught artist known for this interior scenes and landscape depictions, marking one of the first paintings by Matthew Wong offered in an Evening Sale context. Other contemporary artists debuting this season include Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe and Robert Nava.

MATTHEW WONG

Mood Room, 2018

Estimate: $60,000 – 80,000

© Matthew Wong, Courtesy of Phillips 

CHARLES WHITE

Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, 1958

Estimate: $700,000 – 1,000,000

© The Estate of Charles White, Courtesy of Phillips 

Charles White’s Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child from 1958, painted shortly after the artist moved to Los Angeles where he became an important teacher and mentor for African American artists at Otis College of Art and Design. Taking its title from an African American spiritual, which regained popularity in the civil rights movement, the work is a significant example of his signature draftsmanship utilizing ink wash in color. With an estimate of $700,000 – $1,000,000, the work is poised to make a world record for the artist in this medium. David Hammons’ Untitled (Jordan begins his 8th season as no. 1) from 1991 transforms a copy of the Amsterdam News from November 2, 1991 into a work of contemporary realism.

CHRISTINA QUARLES

Placed, 2017

Estimate: $70,000 – 100,000

© Christina Quarles, Courtesy of Phillips 

Phillips continues to bring to market works by artists for which we have achieved world record results across our sales globally. The sale includes a painting Lucas Arruda whose world record was achieved at Phillips London in February 2020, realizing a price of £300,000, as well as a painting by Christina Quarles for whom we achieved the world record this past November 2019, $275,000, more than five times the low estimate of $50,000, after debuting the artist in a Phillips’ Day Sale New York November 2018. In addition, the sale will feature a work by Amoako Boafo, whose world record was achieved at Phillips London in February 2020 with his auction debut The Lemon Bathing Suit, which achieved a price of £675,000 more than twenty times its low estimate of £30,000.

Francis Picabia’s 1941-42 Portrait de Femme hails from a late period in the artist’s career devoted to painting pin-ups, which have gone on to have a significant influence on contemporary artists working today including John Currin and David Salle.

Julio González’s bronze sculpture, L’arlequin / Pierrot ou Colombine represents his pioneering practice in light of his collaborative work with Pablo Picasso.

Day Sale Highlights 

Phillips 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale will be livestreamed to bidders worldwide on July 2 across two sessions, starting at 11am EDT and later at 2pm EDT. The sale will champion numerous artists from the 20th and 21st centuries, featuring more than 170 lots across both sessions. 

JOHN CHAMBERLAIN

Pure Drop, 1983

Estimate: $600,000 – 800,000

© The Estate of John Chamberlain, Courtesy of Phillips

Leading the Morning Session is John Chamberlain’s monumental Pure Drop, 1983, from the artist's Giraffe series. Pure Drop exemplifies Chamberlain's novel sandblasting technique, which began to define his oeuvre after his move to Florida in the early 1980s. Also featured in the sale is a remarkable landscape painting from 1995 by Cuban artist Tomas Sánchez, Meditador, its title referring to Tomas Sánchez’s conception of landscape playing a meditative role between man and nature. Another top lot is Kenneth Noland’s Resect, 1979, one of the artist’s renowned asymmetrically shaped canvases. Other notable works include sculptures by Anne Truitt and Joseph Cornell, and two works by Henri Laurens, culminating the selection of works from the Collection of Florence Knoll Bassett, which have been offered across Phillips’ 20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design Sales over the past year.

NOAH DAVIS

100 Years of Entertainment 1-5, 2008

Estimate: $120,000 – 180,000

© The Estate of Noah Davis, Courtesy of Phillips

The Afternoon Session will feature works by important contemporary artists, including Jonathan Lyndon Chase, Matthew Wong, Amoako Boafo and Noah Davis—notably Noah Davis’s 100 Years of Entertainment 1-5, 2008, which exemplifies the abstracted figuration for which the artist is known. This comes to auction on the heels of a new world auction record for the artist, set this past March at Phillips, with a painting selling for $400,000, over six times its low estimate. Another highlight will be Vivian Springford’s Untitled (Tanzania Series), 1972, the first work by the artist to be offered at Phillips. While an active figure in the New York art scene from the 1950s to the 1970s, Vivian Springford withdrew from the public eye until her work was rediscovered in the late 1990s just before her death, and more recently shown at Almine Rech Gallery in New York in 2018. 

VIVIAN SPRINGFORD

Untitled (Tanzania Series), 1972

Estimate: $60,000 – 80,000 

© The Estate of Vivian Springford, Courtesy of Phillips

JOHN BALDESSARI

Double Bill (Part 2): ...and Ernst, 2012

Estimate: $200,000 – 300,000

© The Estate of John Baldessari, Courtesy of Phillips

The sale will also include John Baldessari’s Double Bill (Part 2): …and Ernst, 2012—a quintessential example of John Baldessari’s unmistakable semiotic wordplay—from the Collection of Blake Byrne, Los Angeles.

*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium; prices achieved include the hammer price plus buyer’s premium.

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session
Auction: 2 July 2020, 10am EDT
Location: 450 Park Avenue, New York
Click here for more information: https://www.phillips.com/auctions/auction/NY010420

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Afternoon Session
Auction: 2 July 2020, 2pm EDT
Location: 450 Park Avenue, New York
Click here for more information: https://www.phillips.com/auctions/auction/NY010520

20th Century and Contemporary Art Evening Sale
Auction: 2 July 2020, 5pm EDT
Location: 450 Park Avenue, New York
Click here for more information: https://www.phillips.com/auctions/auction/NY010320

PHILLIPS
www.phillips.com

Artists Making Photographs at the Whitney Museum

Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008), CY + RELICS—Rome, 1952.

Gelatin silver print, 14 15/16 x 14 15/16 in. (37.9 x 37.9 cm).

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York;

gift of the artist and Pace/MacGill Gallery 93.57.

© Robert Rauschenberg, licensed by VAGA, New York, N.Y.

Artists Making Photographs focuses on five major artists from the Whitney's collection – John Chamberlain, Robert Rauschenberg, Lucas Samaras, Ed Ruscha, and Andy Warhol – all of whom are best known for their work in sculpture and painting, although they have each made significant works with a camera as well. The exhibition, in the Sondra Gilman Gallery, opens January 16, 2009; it is organized by Elisabeth Sussman, Whitney curator and Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography.

The pioneer of the group is Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008), who exhibited passionate interest in both painting and photography from the beginning of his career. He first studied photography at Black Mountain College in the early 1950s. In 1951 he stated that he would photograph the U.S. “inch by inch,” attesting to his investment in the medium. The following year he traveled to Rome, where he made numerous photographs, including one of fellow artist Cy Twombly, which is on view in the show. Rauschenberg’s large-scale black painting, with its multi-panel construction and textural ground of newspaper collage, provides further evidence of the artist's dedication to radical experimentation. Rauschenberg’s enthusiastic embrace of photography initiated a range of experiments over the next two decades.

Aware of Rauschenberg's work, Andy Warhol (1928-1987) explored photography in the mid-1960s. Warhol, however, sent his subjects into a photo booth rather than composing and taking their portraits himself. The process and aesthetic of mechanical reproduction would become integral to Warhol's work in the ensuing years, represented here by Nine Jackies with its repetition of appropriated photographic images of Jacqueline Kennedy taken at the time of her husband’s assassination. With this new style, Warhol initiated the genre of photo based history painting that continues to be explored by artists today.

The paintings and drawings of Ed Ruscha (b. 1937) similarly seize upon iconic images of American culture. With the recent discovery of his extensive body of photography, it now appears that Ruscha's ability to capture an image and create a mood derives, in part, from the focus provided by the experience of using a camera. The exhibition includes a sampling of the many themes that occur in his work across mediums. For instance, a self-portrait with a black eye finds poetic echoes not only in the “portrait”drawing of a familiar anti-nausea medication, but also in the medium of its execution: gunpowder.

John Chamberlain (b. 1927) and Lucas Samaras (b. 1936) are two artists who began to explore the possibilities of photography in the 1970s. Chamberlain’s abstract photograph of distorted planes of color recalls his welded sculpture of fragments of car parts. Samaras’s insertion of his body into decorative fields and his fluid manipulations of photographic emulsions parallel the surrealistic contortions of his laboriously crafted yarn and plaster chair.