The sale of the upcoming Phillips London auction will be led by Günther Förg, Eddie martinez, Jonas Wood and Mr., with further highlights including works by Jadé Fadojutimi, Aboudia, Damien Hirst, KAWS and Yoshitomo Nara and modern British sculptures by Elisabeth Frink and Barry Flanagan.
Untitled by Günther Förg comes to auction this December from the collection of Mikael Andersen, an important collector of Förg's works. Andersen said of the artist's work, “they looked at the whole history of art – from Philip Guston to Munch and Rothko – and transformed it into a singular expression, undoubtedly that of Förg”. The present work is characterized by broad splashes of pigment that vibrate on the vast expanse of the silver ground. Förg masterfully employs negative space to unify and establish harmonies between the disparate flashes of colour. The effect of this on such a monumental scale is vibrant, energetic and atmospheric.
Untitled
Painterly spots of carefully thought-out colored constellations decorate the monochromatic gray painted background. Executed 2001, Untitled it is a moving example that anticipates the significant and celebrated series of Spot Paintings that Günther Förg adopted late in his career, and an expansion of the Grid Paintings that the artist began in the 90s. Exhibited in Berlin at the Galerie Mikael Andersen exhibition Günther Förg: Works 1988-2007 in 2020, Untitled is a vivid and playful testimony to Förg's personal relationship with the Danish gallerist and collector. Andersen is deeply committed to the artists he supports and this commitment has materialized in the physical space of his Henning Larsen-designed Studio House in Vejby Strand, where painters such as Shara Hughes, Eddie Martinez, Tom Anholt and Förg himself have resided and worked during several summers. The precious relationship between the two men is evident in the image below and the gray painted background of the present example can be seen to the lower left, before the colored dots were added.
The use of gray in Untitled harks back to the artist's early gray paintings he created from the late 70s and continues as an essential recurring element throughout his celebrated and diverse oeuvre. Fundamentally, Förg's use of gray represents a neutral foundation from which he has formulated his works.
Untitled
Oscillating between the street poetry of Jean-Michel Basquiat, the darkly humorous portraits of Philip Guston and the feigned naivety of Paul Klee's compositions, Untitled is a quintessential example of Martinez's playful artistic expression which has earned him worldwide critical acclaim in recent decades. Unapologetically walking the line between abstraction and figuration, the Brooklyn-based self-taught artist has cultivated an exhaustive artistic process that blends elements of her personal experience and historical movements such as action painting, neo-expressionism, and popular culture that they fascinate him. Known for his monumental expressionist paintings, Martinez has developed an energetic, spontaneous and fast-paced creative process which consists of exploding his drawings and screen printing them on large canvases.
Yellow Crate
Bold, brightly colored and capable of capturing the quality graphics for which the artist became so famous, Yellow Crate it is highly representative of Los Angeles artist Jonas Wood's whimsical approach to the tradition of still life painting. Isolated against a sparse background and featuring a single houseplant in a simple terracotta pot whose slender, drooping stems introduce an element of natural geometry to the composition, Yellow Crate foregrounds issues of pattern, shape and color in the his presentation of a deceptively simple scene of everyday life. Intimately related to the domestic and personal, Yellow Crate highlights Wood's tendency to tap into his own life and to the surrounding environment for his subjects. Moving between historical-artistic and very personal references, Wood's compositions often feature vases designed by his wife, the ceramist Shio Kusaka, arranged among other material traces of interiors, objects, friends and heroes that make up the rich fabric of his life. Grew up surrounded by the impressive art collection of his grandfather, Wood imbibed these influences at a young age, the flattened forms, color relationships and attention to rhythmic pattern here visually recall the spatial arrangements of Henri Matisse and Vincent Van Gogh alongside those of David Hockney's sensually saturated and distinctly Californian palette. In his unique blend of realism and abstraction, Wood makes the familiar strange, combining these carefully researched art-historical references with the deeply personal, reinterpreting both in his uniquely contemporary and instantly recognizable visual vocabulary.
Also on offer is a selection of works by contemporary African artists including Serge Attukwei Clottey and Joana Choumali, whose work has been donated by Africa First to benefit the Africa First Artist Residency Program. On view in Phillips' London galleries, alongside highlights from New Now, from 2 to 9 December, the exhibition of the finalists of the Sovereign Art Foundation Student Award. The New Now Sale comprises over 180 lots and will take place on December 9th at 14pm.
Cover artwork:
Thierry Black
Achung Baby, 2021
Estimate: £7,000 – 10,000
