Lot 474
  • 474

Bill Viola

Estimate
300,000 - 400,000 USD
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Description

  • Bill Viola
  • Eternal Return
  • video/sound installation: two channels of color video on two plasma displays and two speakers 
  • installed: 81 3/4 by 25 1/8 by 6 1/8 in. 207.7 by 63.8 by 15.6 cm.
  • Executed in 2000, this work is number 5 from an edition of 5, plus 2 artist's proofs.

Provenance

Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London 
Private Collection, New York (acquired from the above in 2001)
Phillips de Pury & Company, London, Contemporary Art, 14 October 2006, Lot 30
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Exhibited

Detroit Institute of Art, Bill Viola, September - December 2000 (another example exhibited)
London, Anthony d’Offay Gallery, Five Angels for the Millennium and Other New Works, 2001 (another example exhibited)
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Southern Exposure, September 2005 - January 2006 (another example exhibited)
Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney, Southern Exposure: Works from the Collection of the MCA San Diego, March - June 2008, p. 11 (another example exhibited)
Las Vegas, Bellagio Gallery, Figuratively Speaking: A survey of the Human Form, May 2010 - March 2011 (another example exhibited)
Varese, Villa di Panza, Bill Viola: Reflections, May - October 2012 (another example exhibited)
Venice, Espace Louis Vuitton, Renaissance: Carpaccio – Bill Viola, January - May 2014 (another example exhibited)

Condition

This work is in very good condition and full working order. The high-definition playback audio-visual equipment can be updated in coordination with the studio.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

An awe-inspiring tale of emergence and evanescence, Eternal Return is one of the most captivating examples from Bill Viola’s astounding practice. The hypnotic and fluid images in Viola’s video depict a human figure strangely floating through a luminous void of unknown dimensions where the laws of physics seem suspended. Ultra-slow motion encourages the viewer to sink deep into Viola’s poetic moving-tableaux. Suddenly, the figure accelerates and plunges through a pool of water until it reappears on the upper monitor. Slowly continuing its passage through the void, the figure finally leaves the realm of the visible with shining water bubbles floating like stars in the night sky.

Widely considered to be the most influential video artist working today, Viola conceived Eternal Return during a decisive moment in his career. Realized after spending a year at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles as a scholar-in-residence, the present work narrates the impact of a demanding twelve months. Considered an intensive post among leading intellectuals in the field, the year reframed many aspects of art history for Viola causing him to develop and expand pre-existing thoughts related to his own work. Indeed, Peter Sellars has described this moment as “a period of intense self-scrutiny and hunger in the artist’s life” (Peter Sellars in: Exh. Cat., Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum (and traveling), Bill Viola: The Passions, 2003, p. 159).

Eternal Return is a powerful combination of these new inspirations and his ongoing occupation with ancient philosophy and mysticism. The work uses the classical diptych format to evoke the idea of a recurring universe which has played an essential role in human beings understanding of the world from ancient Egypt to the Stoics through to Friedrich Nietzsche. Looping itself, Eternal Return visualizes reincarnation as a transition from nether to upper worlds, from darkness to the light. The division between the two realms is indicated by splashing water, one of Viola’s signature motifs that has been described as a metaphor for the subconscious mind, a visual translation of the dream state. Autobiographically relating to an experience in Viola’s childhood when he nearly drowned in a lake – an experience he describes as “without fear” and “entirely peaceful” – Eternal Return also speaks to a transition from the subconscious sphere to the world of reason (Bill Viola in: Mark Kidal, Bill Viola: The Eye of the Heart, Film for the Humanities & Sciences, 2005, video resource).

Seen from this perspective, Eternal Return epitomises universal aspects of human life, so that the oneiric journey through water ultimately reminds us of our own path. In a few fleeting minutes, destiny unfolds before our eyes: birth, death and an encounter with the elements. Viola’s work speaks to their total control over us until, through a powerful catharsis, we emerge to an incomprehensible above where "the borders between the infinite cosmos and the finite human body merge” (ibid., p. 146).