Current Art
See also : Current art by women Koons New Chinese painting Mountains in China Japan and Korea
Chronology : 2010 to now
Chronology : 2010 to now
2010 Pumpkin by Yayoi Kusama
2019 SOLD for HK$ 54M including premium by Sotheby's
2010 Force Field by George Condo
2020 SOLD for HK$ 53M including premium by Christie's
Link to catalogue.
2010 The Contemporary Leopard
2011 SOLD 36 MHK$ with no buyer's premium applied
The initiative might seem strange, but in fact it is quite interesting. Just before its sales in Hong Kong, Christie's is devoting an exhibition titled "Being" to thirty very recent works by Zeng Fanzhi.
"Being" is the being that inhabits our planet. And Zeng, aged 47, has just changed his style and theme.
He is one of the top Chinese contemporary artists, best known for his portraits and scenes of ordinary characters who attract no empathy as they seem not to think about anything.
The new momentum of conservationism by Zeng is indeed in the same logic: the Earth does not belong to these useless people, but to the plants and animals that inhabit it for so long.
At the request of Christie's, the artist himself has chosen one of his works to be auctioned on May 28 on the benefit of environmental organizations. He donates a superb leopard, oil on canvas painted in 2010, 280 x 180 cm, shown on the release shared by Artdaily.
It is night. Flakes fall. The animal in the snow is on the lookout. It is right to be suspicious, because it is already joined by civilization. It is suddenly lit from below, as if it is in the headlights of a car. It is a work of great activist power, estimated HK $ 6M.
"Being" is the being that inhabits our planet. And Zeng, aged 47, has just changed his style and theme.
He is one of the top Chinese contemporary artists, best known for his portraits and scenes of ordinary characters who attract no empathy as they seem not to think about anything.
The new momentum of conservationism by Zeng is indeed in the same logic: the Earth does not belong to these useless people, but to the plants and animals that inhabit it for so long.
At the request of Christie's, the artist himself has chosen one of his works to be auctioned on May 28 on the benefit of environmental organizations. He donates a superb leopard, oil on canvas painted in 2010, 280 x 180 cm, shown on the release shared by Artdaily.
It is night. Flakes fall. The animal in the snow is on the lookout. It is right to be suspicious, because it is already joined by civilization. It is suddenly lit from below, as if it is in the headlights of a car. It is a work of great activist power, estimated HK $ 6M.
2011 Spinach in Art
2014 SOLD 28 M$ including premium
The series of the Celebrations brought to the art of Koons a universal language and a flawless and inimitable technique, with its pure colors in transparent coating onto a perfectly polished stainless steel. A come back to American kitsch was tempting. Koons highlighted Popeye.
This is a clever choice. The image of Popeye, created in 1929, is recognized worldwide. This character has a gruff and whimsical behavior that appeals to Americans. He is never completely caught by his stupidity offset by a large dose of sentimentality.
Popeye would not exist without his spinach box, which provides him with oversized forearms and an invincible strength. Koons notes that spinach transforms this character same as art transforms the reality of life. Popeye is the precursor of these superhuman heroes led by Superman who managed to brighten the Americans at the height of the Great Depression.
His name is an allusion to his pirate eye. Meanwhile, the pop art has gone. Koons offers a sign of connivence to pop art that is indeed a tribute to his predecessors Warhol, Lichtenstein and Mel Ramos.
As for the Celebrations, the statue has two dates, from design to completion. This 2 m high Popeye, dated 2009-2011, was edited in four units plus one artist's proof.
One of them is for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 14. The press release issued on April 11 announced an estimate around $ 25M. I invite you to play the short video shared by Sotheby's for introducing this lot.
The above video was only a short preview. I invite you now to play the full length video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This very recent work was sold for $ 28M including premium.
This is a clever choice. The image of Popeye, created in 1929, is recognized worldwide. This character has a gruff and whimsical behavior that appeals to Americans. He is never completely caught by his stupidity offset by a large dose of sentimentality.
Popeye would not exist without his spinach box, which provides him with oversized forearms and an invincible strength. Koons notes that spinach transforms this character same as art transforms the reality of life. Popeye is the precursor of these superhuman heroes led by Superman who managed to brighten the Americans at the height of the Great Depression.
His name is an allusion to his pirate eye. Meanwhile, the pop art has gone. Koons offers a sign of connivence to pop art that is indeed a tribute to his predecessors Warhol, Lichtenstein and Mel Ramos.
As for the Celebrations, the statue has two dates, from design to completion. This 2 m high Popeye, dated 2009-2011, was edited in four units plus one artist's proof.
One of them is for sale by Sotheby's in New York on May 14. The press release issued on April 11 announced an estimate around $ 25M. I invite you to play the short video shared by Sotheby's for introducing this lot.
The above video was only a short preview. I invite you now to play the full length video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
This very recent work was sold for $ 28M including premium.
2011 S III Released to France Face 43.14 by Grotjahn
2017 SOLD for $ 16.8M including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2018 before the sale of another painting by Christie's (see below)
Inspired by Picasso's art, Mark Grotjahn begins with abstract paintings designed around two vanishing points spread over a central vertical. The radiating lines define triangles that are filled in several monochrome shades of a basic color. This is his series of Butterflies, offering the illusion of these insects with open wings.
He changes his theme in 2007. Vanishing points are now multiple, spread on the canvas to simulate a mouth, a nose and several eyes in a changing quantity. The radiant graphics are now flexible lines that get entangled in a thick impasto of many colors. The figurative elements disappear, as Pollock's preliminary drawings were doing under his dripping.
The colors are carefully chosen so that none of them is dominant. As for Rothko or Gaitonde, the artworks are glossy and their photographic reproductions are dull. Through the folds of the impasto, the viewer looks for the face as he searches for the hidden message with Mark Bradford or the truculent detail with Cecily Brown.
Painted in 2011, Untitled (S III Release to France Face 43.14), oil on cardboard mounted on canvas 257 x 187 cm, was sold for $ 16.8M including premium by Christie's on May 17, 2017, lot 36 B.
An Untitled (Yellow and Green Low Fall Face 41.80), 224 x 124 cm painted in the same year with the same technique, passed at Christie's on October 4, 2018.
He changes his theme in 2007. Vanishing points are now multiple, spread on the canvas to simulate a mouth, a nose and several eyes in a changing quantity. The radiant graphics are now flexible lines that get entangled in a thick impasto of many colors. The figurative elements disappear, as Pollock's preliminary drawings were doing under his dripping.
The colors are carefully chosen so that none of them is dominant. As for Rothko or Gaitonde, the artworks are glossy and their photographic reproductions are dull. Through the folds of the impasto, the viewer looks for the face as he searches for the hidden message with Mark Bradford or the truculent detail with Cecily Brown.
Painted in 2011, Untitled (S III Release to France Face 43.14), oil on cardboard mounted on canvas 257 x 187 cm, was sold for $ 16.8M including premium by Christie's on May 17, 2017, lot 36 B.
An Untitled (Yellow and Green Low Fall Face 41.80), 224 x 124 cm painted in the same year with the same technique, passed at Christie's on October 4, 2018.
2011 Encased Cakes by Wayne Thiebaud
2019 SOLD for $ 8.5M including premium by Sotheby's
Link to catalogue.
2011 Forgive us our Trespassing by Banksy
2020 SOLD for HK$ 64M including premium by Sotheby's
Link to catalogue.
2012 An Insidious Smile
2019 SOLD for HK$ 93M including premium
Born in the region of Aomori, Yoshitomo Nara is a provincial. He studied art in Düsseldorf and began his career in Germany. He is a foreigner for whom the world is an insidious threat. He transposes this impression into the attitude and expression of very young children, with a stylized line that only retains the essentials in the style of caricatures and comics.
From a distance, his little girls remain symbols of purity and innocence. A detail reveals the threat. Sleepness Night, painted in 1999, shows a girl's head with cat's eyes and a fang on either side of her mouth. This 120 x 110 cm acrylic on canvas was sold for HK $ 35M including premium by Christie's on May 25, 2019.
The world is even worse than the artist had imagined. Just before returning to Japan, he visits Auschwitz. His little girl becomes an activist. Knife behind back, acrylic 234 x 208 cm painted in 2000, was sold for HK $ 196M including premium by Sotheby's on October 6, 2019.
During the sleepless nights, his character becomes an evil being. Displaying on her head the Christian cross, Midnight Vampire, acrylic 73 x 61 cm painted in 2010, was sold for HK $ 17.5M including premium by Christie's on November 25, 2017. The little girl quietly closes her eyes but has the fangs of the cat.
Everything is getting worse in the real world. The Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011 took place near his hometown. Nara, who knew some victims, is at first tetanized. Later the restart of life over devastation encourages his creativity.
On November 23 in Hong Kong, Christie's sells as lot 54 A an acrylic on canvas 193 x 183 cm painted in 2012. The cat's eyes prepare a nice wink and the expression is smiling, but a single fang comes out at one side of the mouth. The title of the work is the immediate threat by a vampire, confirming the treacherous malaise of the modern world : Can't Wait 'til the Night Comes.
From a distance, his little girls remain symbols of purity and innocence. A detail reveals the threat. Sleepness Night, painted in 1999, shows a girl's head with cat's eyes and a fang on either side of her mouth. This 120 x 110 cm acrylic on canvas was sold for HK $ 35M including premium by Christie's on May 25, 2019.
The world is even worse than the artist had imagined. Just before returning to Japan, he visits Auschwitz. His little girl becomes an activist. Knife behind back, acrylic 234 x 208 cm painted in 2000, was sold for HK $ 196M including premium by Sotheby's on October 6, 2019.
During the sleepless nights, his character becomes an evil being. Displaying on her head the Christian cross, Midnight Vampire, acrylic 73 x 61 cm painted in 2010, was sold for HK $ 17.5M including premium by Christie's on November 25, 2017. The little girl quietly closes her eyes but has the fangs of the cat.
Everything is getting worse in the real world. The Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011 took place near his hometown. Nara, who knew some victims, is at first tetanized. Later the restart of life over devastation encourages his creativity.
On November 23 in Hong Kong, Christie's sells as lot 54 A an acrylic on canvas 193 x 183 cm painted in 2012. The cat's eyes prepare a nice wink and the expression is smiling, but a single fang comes out at one side of the mouth. The title of the work is the immediate threat by a vampire, confirming the treacherous malaise of the modern world : Can't Wait 'til the Night Comes.
2012 Reflective Graffiti with Stingel
2019 SOLD for $ 6.9M including premium
The 2017 spring sales of contemporary art in New York included two examples from the 2012 wall graffiti series by Rudolf Stingel.
The 240 x 240 cm four element wall was sold for $ 6.7M including premium by Christie's on May 17, 2017, lot 45 B. A similar opus had been sold for $ 4.8M including premium by Phillips on May 14, 2015. Another one will be later sold by Phillips, for £ 5.7M including premium on March 8, 2018.
The 240 x 360 cm six element wall is an exceptional configuration in that series. It was sold for $ 6.9M including premium by Sotheby's on May 18, 2017, lot 5. Please watch the video shared by the auction house before that sale. It is now estimated $ 6M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 14, lot 32.
I narrated the place of this 2012 series in art history as follows before the 2017 sales.
With Felix Gonzalez-Torres and later with Rudolf Stingel the viewer participates in the creation. We remember a Gonzalez-Torres carpet of candies from which a young child innocent of art took some samples.
In an early series Stingel displays on the floor the carpets in which the visitors of his exhibitions leave the mark of their footsteps. The effect is improved when the boots are previously dipped in lacquer.
In two exhibitions in Chicago and New York in 2007 he covers the walls with Celotex insulation panels and invites the amused crowd to scribble on this malleable surface.
In 2012 with the support of Gagosian he reuses the 2007 panels as screens for printing highly reflective gilded copper walls in assemblies of individual elements 120 x 120 cm and 4 cm thick.
The 240 x 240 cm four element wall was sold for $ 6.7M including premium by Christie's on May 17, 2017, lot 45 B. A similar opus had been sold for $ 4.8M including premium by Phillips on May 14, 2015. Another one will be later sold by Phillips, for £ 5.7M including premium on March 8, 2018.
The 240 x 360 cm six element wall is an exceptional configuration in that series. It was sold for $ 6.9M including premium by Sotheby's on May 18, 2017, lot 5. Please watch the video shared by the auction house before that sale. It is now estimated $ 6M for sale by Sotheby's in New York on November 14, lot 32.
I narrated the place of this 2012 series in art history as follows before the 2017 sales.
With Felix Gonzalez-Torres and later with Rudolf Stingel the viewer participates in the creation. We remember a Gonzalez-Torres carpet of candies from which a young child innocent of art took some samples.
In an early series Stingel displays on the floor the carpets in which the visitors of his exhibitions leave the mark of their footsteps. The effect is improved when the boots are previously dipped in lacquer.
In two exhibitions in Chicago and New York in 2007 he covers the walls with Celotex insulation panels and invites the amused crowd to scribble on this malleable surface.
In 2012 with the support of Gagosian he reuses the 2007 panels as screens for printing highly reflective gilded copper walls in assemblies of individual elements 120 x 120 cm and 4 cm thick.
2013 Eternal Snows of Today
2016 SOLD for HK$ 306M including premium
Cui Ruzhuo assembles polyptychs composed of vertical panels painted in ink and wash. A single gigantic work may occupy a full wall in an exhibition. His inspiration may be compared to the circular room of the Grandes Décorations of Monet's pond while a direct influence of Monet's art on Cui is unlikely.
The themes chosen by Cui appeal to the Chinese sensitivity and his art is virtually unknown outside China. On the theme of the lotus, an assembly of eight scrolls 247 x 123 cm each was sold for HK $ 123M including premium by Christie's on 29 November 2011, the very year of the creation of that work.
The favorite theme of Cui is the unlimited landscape of snowy mountains, eternally indifferent to men. A set of eight panels made in 2005 for a total size of 202 x 988 cm was sold for HK $ 77M including premium by Christie's on May 28, 2013.
Poly Auction regularly includes in its sales a session entirely devoted to Cui. An unfragmented hand scroll of snowy mountains 36 m long made in 2006 was sold for HK $ 184M including premium on April 7, 2014.
On April 4 at Hong Kong, Poly sells 'Grand snowing mountains' inspired by Jiangnan, mounted set of eight panels made in 2013 to an overall size of 300 x 873 cm, lot 1213 estimated HK $ 150M, illustrated in Section V of the press release of the sale.
This work had been sold for HK $ 236M including premium by Poly on 7 April 2015. Announced at that time as a record for the artist, this result is not quoted in the press release of the next sale. I guess that it is listed again because it had not been paid. The similarity between the two lots leaves no doubt that it is the same piece.
The themes chosen by Cui appeal to the Chinese sensitivity and his art is virtually unknown outside China. On the theme of the lotus, an assembly of eight scrolls 247 x 123 cm each was sold for HK $ 123M including premium by Christie's on 29 November 2011, the very year of the creation of that work.
The favorite theme of Cui is the unlimited landscape of snowy mountains, eternally indifferent to men. A set of eight panels made in 2005 for a total size of 202 x 988 cm was sold for HK $ 77M including premium by Christie's on May 28, 2013.
Poly Auction regularly includes in its sales a session entirely devoted to Cui. An unfragmented hand scroll of snowy mountains 36 m long made in 2006 was sold for HK $ 184M including premium on April 7, 2014.
On April 4 at Hong Kong, Poly sells 'Grand snowing mountains' inspired by Jiangnan, mounted set of eight panels made in 2013 to an overall size of 300 x 873 cm, lot 1213 estimated HK $ 150M, illustrated in Section V of the press release of the sale.
This work had been sold for HK $ 236M including premium by Poly on 7 April 2015. Announced at that time as a record for the artist, this result is not quoted in the press release of the next sale. I guess that it is listed again because it had not been paid. The similarity between the two lots leaves no doubt that it is the same piece.
2013 The Art of the Five Vidyas
2015 SOLD for $ 10.2M before fees
The Vidyas are the concepts that oppose ignorance to explain the universe. The five major Vidyas are logic, healing, communication, art and enlightenment. Wan Ko Yee is a master of the Vidyas. Doctor in Buddhism, philosophy, art, calligraphy and painting in 1999, he is also a fellow of the Royal Academy of Arts. He lives in California.
This highly respected personality is recognized since 2008 as an incarnation of the most important Buddha and is now named His Holiness Dorje Chang Buddha III. In 2011 he received the World Peace Prize, an interfaith prize that is often awarded to heads of state. A museum is dedicated to his art and to his cultural work in Covina CA.
His graphic art is varied and fits into the modern world while respecting traditional techniques. His favorite themes are plants, animals and landscapes. His use of inks in vibrant colors is in the following of the Chinese art of the twentieth century by Qi Baishi, Zhang Daqian and Wu Guanzhong, for example.
The figuration of simple themes is an opening to the complexity and subtlety of nature. Lotus Ink expresses how beauty can come out of chaos. This artwork was sold for $ 16.5 million before fees by Gianguan Auctions in March 2015.
On September 12 in New York, Gianguan Auctions sells Loquat, ink and color 80 x 70 cm on paper hanging scroll painted in 2013, lot 79 here linked on the Invaluable bidding platform, estimated $ 9M.
The image shows the fruits, leaves and branches of a loquat. The intention of the artist is to demonstrate that perfection can be reached in a light and airy composition. It is confirmed by a calligraphic text that subtly takes the shape of an additional branch of the plant.
His Holiness is a skilled artist whose hand does not shake. Loquat was realized without a preliminary drawing and without rework, with a nice contrast of ink density in twigs and leaves.
This highly respected personality is recognized since 2008 as an incarnation of the most important Buddha and is now named His Holiness Dorje Chang Buddha III. In 2011 he received the World Peace Prize, an interfaith prize that is often awarded to heads of state. A museum is dedicated to his art and to his cultural work in Covina CA.
His graphic art is varied and fits into the modern world while respecting traditional techniques. His favorite themes are plants, animals and landscapes. His use of inks in vibrant colors is in the following of the Chinese art of the twentieth century by Qi Baishi, Zhang Daqian and Wu Guanzhong, for example.
The figuration of simple themes is an opening to the complexity and subtlety of nature. Lotus Ink expresses how beauty can come out of chaos. This artwork was sold for $ 16.5 million before fees by Gianguan Auctions in March 2015.
On September 12 in New York, Gianguan Auctions sells Loquat, ink and color 80 x 70 cm on paper hanging scroll painted in 2013, lot 79 here linked on the Invaluable bidding platform, estimated $ 9M.
The image shows the fruits, leaves and branches of a loquat. The intention of the artist is to demonstrate that perfection can be reached in a light and airy composition. It is confirmed by a calligraphic text that subtly takes the shape of an additional branch of the plant.
His Holiness is a skilled artist whose hand does not shake. Loquat was realized without a preliminary drawing and without rework, with a nice contrast of ink density in twigs and leaves.
2013 Motherhood
2019 SOLD for £ 4.2M including premium
The observation of the flesh is the only purpose of Jenny Saville's paintings. Her early works are a disapproval of the artificial representation that women build from their own bodies. She turns to a horror vision the voluntary but nevertheless mutilating transformations of plastic surgery.
The relationships between several bodies interest her also. Her masterpiece of this second phase, Shift, is also a reference to the Demoiselles d'Avignon. This oil on canvas 330 x 330 cm completed in 1997 was sold for £ 6.8M including premium by Sotheby's on June 28, 2016.
In her observation of the bodies, Jenny Saville comes to reduce the difference between man and woman, between normal and pathological, between natural and artificial, between immobility and movement. She admits trans-gender as a third state whose population is increasing in the contemporary world.
The human being does not exist without body but the individuality is questioned by an intimate relation indispensable to the continuation of mankind : the pregnancy. Jenny Saville is emotionally shocked by her two maternities, in 2007 and 2008 : she had created flesh inside her own body.
From this stage her art changes. The head, often a self-portrait, was pushed away to the background in her previous works. It becomes the major theme. The eyes and the mouth are the main support of the communication of a human being with the world. The rest of the face is only a kind of frame for which any color may be used in a heavy impasto as Francis Bacon often did.
Appreciating this trend, Gagosian organized an exhibition in London in April 2019 on the influence of a Rembrandt self-portrait on contemporary artistic creation. The self portrait (after Rembrandt) painted in 2019 by Jenny Saville masterfully explains the evolution of her vision.
On June 26 in London, Sotheby's sells Shadow Head, lot 8estimated £ 3M. This oil on canvas 270 x 220 cm is monumental when considering that the image is limited to a face. Completed in 2013, this work was dated 2007-2013 by the artist to make it clear that it must be attached to her phase of maternal sensitivity.
The relationships between several bodies interest her also. Her masterpiece of this second phase, Shift, is also a reference to the Demoiselles d'Avignon. This oil on canvas 330 x 330 cm completed in 1997 was sold for £ 6.8M including premium by Sotheby's on June 28, 2016.
In her observation of the bodies, Jenny Saville comes to reduce the difference between man and woman, between normal and pathological, between natural and artificial, between immobility and movement. She admits trans-gender as a third state whose population is increasing in the contemporary world.
The human being does not exist without body but the individuality is questioned by an intimate relation indispensable to the continuation of mankind : the pregnancy. Jenny Saville is emotionally shocked by her two maternities, in 2007 and 2008 : she had created flesh inside her own body.
From this stage her art changes. The head, often a self-portrait, was pushed away to the background in her previous works. It becomes the major theme. The eyes and the mouth are the main support of the communication of a human being with the world. The rest of the face is only a kind of frame for which any color may be used in a heavy impasto as Francis Bacon often did.
Appreciating this trend, Gagosian organized an exhibition in London in April 2019 on the influence of a Rembrandt self-portrait on contemporary artistic creation. The self portrait (after Rembrandt) painted in 2019 by Jenny Saville masterfully explains the evolution of her vision.
On June 26 in London, Sotheby's sells Shadow Head, lot 8estimated £ 3M. This oil on canvas 270 x 220 cm is monumental when considering that the image is limited to a face. Completed in 2013, this work was dated 2007-2013 by the artist to make it clear that it must be attached to her phase of maternal sensitivity.
2014 Koons on the Mound
2018 SOLD for $ 23M including premium
The original artist is a toddler named Ludwig Koons. He plays to triturate Play-Doh multicolored modeling clay, a trademark of Hasbro. Posterity has forever retained this dialogue with his father : Ludwig: "Daddy !" Jeff: "What ?" Ludwig: "Voilà !".
The story takes place in 1994 when Jeff Koons is conceiving as a whole his series of Celebrations. Ludwig's achievement is a formless mound but composed of bright and varied colors. Jeff is not an abstract artist. It does not matter. He will justify the insertion of Play-Doh in his list of Celebrations by the fact that it is a toy that will remind for the visitor the happiness of childhood.
The expectation lasted until 2014 when Play-Doh was released in five copies with different color configurations according to the immutable process for this series. Composed of 27 painted aluminum plates, it measures 315 x 387 x 348 cm, slightly higher than the Balloon Dog.
The delay was long but Jeff Koons turns it to his advantage : it was necessary that the joining of the plates and the surface finish reach perfection. It is true that this surface simulating the impact of touch by the fingers of the toddler is the most complex of the Celebration series. An early trial in polyethylene had not given him satisfaction.
One of the five Play-Dohs will be sold by Christie's in New York on May 17 as lot 12 B. The April 9 press release announces an estimate in the region of $ 20M. Please watch the video shared by the auction house where the lot is discussed by Jeff Koons.
The story takes place in 1994 when Jeff Koons is conceiving as a whole his series of Celebrations. Ludwig's achievement is a formless mound but composed of bright and varied colors. Jeff is not an abstract artist. It does not matter. He will justify the insertion of Play-Doh in his list of Celebrations by the fact that it is a toy that will remind for the visitor the happiness of childhood.
The expectation lasted until 2014 when Play-Doh was released in five copies with different color configurations according to the immutable process for this series. Composed of 27 painted aluminum plates, it measures 315 x 387 x 348 cm, slightly higher than the Balloon Dog.
The delay was long but Jeff Koons turns it to his advantage : it was necessary that the joining of the plates and the surface finish reach perfection. It is true that this surface simulating the impact of touch by the fingers of the toddler is the most complex of the Celebration series. An early trial in polyethylene had not given him satisfaction.
One of the five Play-Dohs will be sold by Christie's in New York on May 17 as lot 12 B. The April 9 press release announces an estimate in the region of $ 20M. Please watch the video shared by the auction house where the lot is discussed by Jeff Koons.
2014 Apocalypse Yesterday
2020 SOLD for £ 4.2M including premium
Adrian Ghenie is a humanist of our time. His art refers to disturbing characters, for good or for evil, of our civilization : Darwin, Van Gogh, Duchamp, Rothko, monkeys, dictators, Elvis. He considers the 20th century as a period of humiliation which continues today. He devotes his art to questioning how we got there, including self-portraits located in periods when he did not live.
Josef Mengele, the SS doctor of Auschwitz, occupies a special place in Ghenie's art. He is the real character of absolute horror, like the bushranger Ned Kelly painted by Sidney Nolan.
Dr. Mengele was not disturbed by the Nuremberg tribunal because the Allies believed that he was dead. He lived in South America, even managing to obtain a German passport with his real identity in 1956. Died in Brazil in 1979, he had never expressed remorse and had not been caught.
On February 11 in London, Sotheby's sells The Arrival, oil on canvas 210 x 165 cm painted by Ghenie in 2014, lot 5 estimated £ 2.5M. A deleterious atmosphere is brought by a fragmentation of surfaces in the style of Boccioni.
In a jungle, a man arrives with a vibrant yellow suitcase. The face is blurred, as for the most sinister characters in Ghenie's paintings on the theme of the nomenklatura. The mustache is the same as on the 1956 passport. The character is Mengele and the jungle symbolizes South America.
The figure has lost its mystery to generate repulsion : his arrival is an announcement of terrible projects. The suitcase is an allusion to Mengele's escape when the Allies liberated Auschwitz. He had taken two cases of samples and documents from his experiments which, according to him, demonstrated the superiority of the Aryan race. It is difficult to be more abject.
Josef Mengele, the SS doctor of Auschwitz, occupies a special place in Ghenie's art. He is the real character of absolute horror, like the bushranger Ned Kelly painted by Sidney Nolan.
Dr. Mengele was not disturbed by the Nuremberg tribunal because the Allies believed that he was dead. He lived in South America, even managing to obtain a German passport with his real identity in 1956. Died in Brazil in 1979, he had never expressed remorse and had not been caught.
On February 11 in London, Sotheby's sells The Arrival, oil on canvas 210 x 165 cm painted by Ghenie in 2014, lot 5 estimated £ 2.5M. A deleterious atmosphere is brought by a fragmentation of surfaces in the style of Boccioni.
In a jungle, a man arrives with a vibrant yellow suitcase. The face is blurred, as for the most sinister characters in Ghenie's paintings on the theme of the nomenklatura. The mustache is the same as on the 1956 passport. The character is Mengele and the jungle symbolizes South America.
The figure has lost its mystery to generate repulsion : his arrival is an announcement of terrible projects. The suitcase is an allusion to Mengele's escape when the Allies liberated Auschwitz. He had taken two cases of samples and documents from his experiments which, according to him, demonstrated the superiority of the Aryan race. It is difficult to be more abject.
2016-2018 Lidless Eye by Ghenie
2020 SOLD for HK$ 55M including premium by Sotheby's
Link to catalogue.
2017 Twelve Screens of Landscape by Cui Ruzhuo
2017 SOLD for RMB 240M including premium by Poly
Post sale report by The Value.
