Mark Grotjahn

Anton Kern Gallery, New York
Collection of Douglas S. Cramer, Connecticut (acquired from the above)
Christie's, New York, 15 November 2012, Lot 401
Acquired from the above sale by the present owner

This work is in excellent condition overall. The sheet is hinged verso to the backing board at the top two corners. There is evidence of some light wear along the edges and at the corners of the sheet, which is only visible upon close inspection. There is some minor lifting along the edges and a soft undulation to the sheet. The surface irregularities, most noticeably in the top right and bottom right quadrants of the sheet are inherent to the artist's working method. Framed under glass.
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.
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"The paintings themselves are hard-edged spatial illusions in rich gradations of color that appear to expand and contract...Grotjahn actually riffs from the whole range of abstraction: Malevich, Mark Rothko, Ad Reinhardt, Frank Stella, Brice Marden et al. Unlike the constructivists who rejected decorative reference or 'subjectivity,' Grotjahn is actively encoding references including pop psychedelic associations." Max Henry in Exh. Cat., London, The Saatchi Gallery, Abstract America: New Paintings & Sculpture at The Saatchi Gallery, 2009, p. 7

“He took the tiered perspectives of some of his paintings from the late 1990s, flipped them sideways and mirrored them, so that radiating perspectival lines reach out to claim all four corners.” Barry Schwabsky, “Vehicles of Fascination” in Exh. Cat., Aspen Art Museum, Mark Grotjahn, 2012, p. 62

At the heart of Mark Grotjahn’s practice to date is an intense fascination with the interplay between illusionistic space and graphic representation. Since 1997, Grotjahn has employed the butterfly motif as a means to investigate Renaissance perspectival techniques with dual and multiple vanishing points. In his works on paper and paintings, the central vanishing point becomes the “body” of the butterfly out of which radiates the streaming colored starbursts or “wings.” While Grotjahn’s Butterfly paintings are generally monochromatic and thickly layered, the drawings boast a brilliant spectrum of colors that alight from the page. In Untitled (Black + Cream-cicle) and Untitled (Black and Canary Yellow Butterfly) from 2007 and 2008 respectively, Grotjahn creates a parallel pictorial universe in which geometric abstraction and traditional Western representational painting collide to masterful effect.

Grotjahn’s oeuvre grew out of conceptual sign making. Early in his career, he would painstakingly reproduce quirky graphics and phrases from local storefronts. In turn, he would trade these handmade copies with the shop owners in exchange for the original signage, which Grotjahn then exhibited as his own. In 1998, Grotjahn displayed works from the Sign Replacement Project alongside a set of paintings stimulated by the perspectival inventions of the Renaissance. Grotjahn recalls: “I started to think about why I got into art in the first place. I was always interested in line and color. I wanted to find a motif that I could experiment with for a while. I did a group of drawings over a period of six to twelve months. The drawing that I chose was one that resembled the three-tier perspective, and that is what I went with” (Arcy Douglass in conversation with Mark Grotjahn, 6 October 2010).

Taking the initial concept one step further, Grotjahn tilted the axis ninety degrees, severing any ties to landscape painting that the horizontal orientation may have suggested. With the vertical body anchoring the center of the composition and the vectors radiating like starbursts, Grotjahn discovered a graphic framework that has become his most sustained visual investigation, generating endless permutations for the artist. Barry Schwabsky explains, “He took the tiered perspectives of some of his paintings from the late 1990s, flipped them sideways and mirrored them, so that radiating perspectival lines reach out to claim all four corners” (Barry Schwabsky, “Vehicles of Fascination” in Exh. Cat., Aspen Art Museum, Mark Grotjahn, 2012, p. 62). At the center of the sheet, the twin vanishing points vibrate uneasily next to each other, not quite in line. The slicing lines draw the viewer’s attention to the corners of the sheet and beyond. Both Untitled (Black and Canary Yellow Butterfly) and Untitled (Black + Cream-cicle) take on a quality of the infinite. The viewer’s eye darts along the unrelenting lines, searching for a respite and finds none. The artist has managed not only to dislocate a familiar technique but also to reinvigorate and energize it to new disorienting ends. Grotjahn’s Butterfly drawings are mesmerizing optical illusions; the delicately coalescing color fields that straddle each longitudinal band richly reference nature and movement, art history and contemporary practice.