Sterling Ruby

Sprüth Magers, London

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 2009

Colour: The colour in the catalogue illustration is fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is brighter in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultra violet light.
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Sterling Ruby ignited the contemporary art scene with an effusion of unbridled energy and punk rock attitude and has propelled to international stardom in less than a decade. His hyperprolific practice and innovative techniques include over dimensional totemic urethane sculptures, richly glazed ceramics and erotically charged video installations. Multifaceted in their use of different mediums, as well as in their source of inspiration, his works scrutinise material limitations, as well as social hierarchies and limits of power. Executed in 2009, SP76 is part of Ruby's revered series of spray paintings. Inspired by the frenetic street scene of Los Angeles, these engrossing abstract expanses are replete with urban iconography and explore socio-cultural concerns and subjects of vandalism to create unique comments on contemporary society. At once reminiscent of street artist and American cult figure Jean-Michel Basquiat, they concurrently establish colour fields of mesmeric visual effect that call to mind the abstract masterworks of modernist hero Mark Rothko and the triumphant squeegee paintings of Gerhard Richter. A creative maverick whose multifarious oeuvre continues to transcend boundaries and contest accepted artistic conventions, Ruby’s works are included in highly prestigious institutional collections, such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim, New York, the Rubell Family Collection, Miami and the Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst, Oslo.

In the present work striations of deep black obscure the vaporous background of neon yellow and dark fuchsia. While the entire work possesses a magnificent pictorial cohesion, the individual colour fields evoke a distant horizon, a hazy, half-seen or remembered landscape, blurred by the sweeping accretions of spray paint. Interspersing strokes and drips of paint imbue the work not only with a visual sfumato effect, but also a sense of quickness, of haste, an urgency to depict that retains the impulsiveness of graffiti art. Defined by a frenetic cacophony of colour and raw expressionistic force the work has a spellbinding, almost hallucinogenic effect.

More than twenty years after Basquiat changed the visual landscape of the Brooklyn street scene and brought graffiti into the realm of high art, Sterling Ruby appropriated spray paint for an investigation into his urban surroundings. Synonymous with vandalism and gang activities, graffiti served as a mark of rebellion, a tool to contend authoritarian limits and boundaries. As succinctly explained by Ruby, in cities like Los Angeles, it symbolised the potent struggle of minorities, a form of radical mark-making that asserted ownership and authority. "My studio [in Los Angeles] was in Hazard Park, where the Avenues and MS13 gangs were fighting over drugs and territory. Their disputes were visually apparent through massive amounts of tagging. The city responded by sending out their anti-graffiti teams during the night. Power paint sprayers were used to cover up the day's graffiti in a muted wash of either beige or gray... All territorial clashes, aggressive cryptograms, and death threats were nullified into a mass of spray-painted gestures that had become nothing more than atmosphere, their violent disputes transposed into an immense, outdoor, nonrepresentational mural" (Sterling Ruby quoted in: Exhibition Catalogue, Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art, The Painting Factory: Abstraction after Warhol, 2012, p. 190).

Although Ruby's unique painterly output enigmatically acknowledges his artistic predecessors, it simultaneously forges an entirely unique visual expression. Beyond the electrifying visual power of SP76’s dense colour fields lies the multivalent chronicle of contemporary American society and the power struggles permeating urban America. The canvas hums with punk rock confidence and asserts Ruby's position as one of the most important artist of the Twenty-First Century.