Christie's is launching a somewhat special auction that will use the proceeds to purchase and preserve a large-scale forest in the Americas to form a new national park. The Sheth Sangreal Foundation, led by Brian Sheth, chairman of the board, Global Wildlife Conservation, helped provide matching funds on the benefit.
Brian Sheth, chairman of the board, Global Wildlife Conservation, commented: “The relationship between nature and art has existed in ways big and small since our shared journey on this planet began. Proceeds and matching funds will strengthen our important work to conserve the crown jewels of tropical forests around the world – the very lifeblood of our planet.”
Predictably, with the funds raised, GWC will be able to preserve a single forest about three times the size of Manhattan and turn it into a new national park. Initiating an ongoing partnership between Christie's and GWC, this sale marks the first time Christie's has sold a group of works to directly impact the formation of a national park.
Dr. Don Church, President of Global Wildlife Conservation, noted: “Through this new and unique collaboration between artists, Christie's, Global Wildlife Conservation and local partners, we are harnessing the power of art to protect acres of rainforest. Each artwork will propel our efforts towards saving the last remaining unprotected forests in tropical regions of the Americas, Africa and Asia. These forests provide a home to countless traditional and indigenous plants, animals and communities, as well as sustain a vibrant planet for all of humanity.”
The selection of approximately 20 works includes works by leading artists such as The Haas Brothers, Rashid Johnson, Cindy Sherman, Robert Longo, Anish Kapoor and Ed Ruscha, as well as major works marking first appearances at auction for emerging artists such as Loie Hollowell, Max Hooper Schneider, Anicka Yi, Ben Thorp Brown and Elizabeth Jaeger.
Vivian Brodie, specialist, post-war and contemporary art, said: “This partnership with Global Wildlife Conservation represents a powerful new initiative to transform works of art into physical acres of protected tropical forests; the relationship between art and conservation doesn't get much more direct and tangible than this."
This benefit focuses on tropical forests, the “lungs” of the Earth, which help drive regional rainfall, clean polluted air, supply indigenous and traditional communities, and house much of life's medicine cabinet in the form of countless plants and animals.
Leading the pack is Anish Kapoor's Mirror (Pale Tangerine to Dark Purple), 2018 (estimate: $400.000-600.000). Anish Kapoor's work Mirror (Pale Tangerine to Dark Purple) alludes the viewer to the infinite nature of visual possibilities. Every detail is captured, reflected and magnified in its lacquered surface, projected in a poetic transience of colours. For over 2.000 years, geometry has remained flat, but by using curvature, Kapoor offers the viewer an alternative to our flat impression of the Earth. Similarly, mirrors have also been used as lenses for understanding light through a long scientific tradition. In this case, Kapoor is the pioneer who incorporated geometry with reflection and explored them as works of art for the first time.
Untitled Escape Collage by Rashid Johnson (estimate: $200.000-300.000) – was a direct gift from the artist and belongs to a group of works that record the artist's attempt to reconcile his black experience with visions of future paradise. Highly saturated palms hold promises of tropical escapes from mundanity, yet assert their forced nature through unnatural hues and psychedelic shadows. Most moving are the pistachio-shaped eyes plucked from wooden images of African gods, ready to pop at a moment's notice to capture the viewer in his intrusive gaze. Johnson dispels the work's lofty claims by taking it to the streets by tagging his own work with graffiti marks. As the utopia materializes, the hooded teenager appears with a bottle of spray paint to reintroduce raw humanity.
Highlights include Taz-Been and Cheetah Hayworth and La Brea Brad Pitt and Quasidodo & Fruit Stripe (5 works), 2017 by the Haas Brothers (estimate: $150.000-200.000). With their exaggerated features and splayed limbs, this group of Haas Brothers rugs demonstrate their interest in the animal form. Resembling what may at first appear to be regular animal skins, they are no ordinary animals at all. The Haas brothers explain: “We were inspired by animal furs, but we thought it would be fun to use extinct animals to have skins that you can't actually get” (H. Martin, “These limited edition rugs are works of Contemporary Art , “Architectural Digest, April 16, 2017). Thus, they take the form of a Dodo bird, Woolly Mammoth, Tasmanian Tiger, Giant Cheetah and a long-lost subspecies of zebra, the Quagga. Rich in color, smooth texture, and lively in puns, this series' sense of fun and imaginative invention draws and seduces the viewer.
