… (The Collaboration Paintings are) a physical conversation happening in paint instead of words. The sense of humor, the snide remarks, the profound realizations, the simple chit-chat all happened with paint and brushes…There was a sense that one was watching something being unveiled and discovered for the first time.
C ollaboration Paintings from The Lobster Land Museum (Olympics) is part of an ongoing Collaboration Paintings series that features Philip Colbert’s alter ego, his iconic lobster, and his cartoon reality coined Lobster Land. Colbert started creating this body of work since 2018, saluting to various modern and contemporary masters such as Francis Bacon and Pablo Picasso. His lobster persona was not a fixed presence in the early works. The more recent examples, such as the current work, pay specific homage to a series of collaborative paintings produced by Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat between 1983-85 commented by Keith Haring. In particular, the current work echoes Olympic Rings (1985) that came out of that collaboration. The painting was inspired by the Summer Olympic Games held in Los Angeles in 1984, while the present lot pays tribute to the Tokyo Olympics this year. (In 2012, Olympic Rings was exhibited in Gagosian Gallery in London to coincide with the London Olympics)
Colbert’s painting brings together the celebrated styles and imageries of both contemporary stars appropriated with his trademark hyper-digital pop aesthetics. Comparing with the 1985 work, the magnified five-rings symbol in the background of Colbert’s technicolour cluster is reminiscent of that by Warhol rendered in overlapping multiples. Basquiat’s signature skull head and stylised logo tagging interspersed the pictorial space in firework-like splendor.
‘I became an artist when I became a Lobster.’
Superimposed on the chromatic bliss is Colbert’s seated crustacean self wearing its typical black boots. When asked why the artist has chosen lobster as his alter ego, Colbert explained:
‘Lobsters have an iconic, historical lineage in art,” Colbert said, “from occupying a central position in Dutch still life painting, to later becoming a symbolic protagonist of surrealism.’
Championed as a contemporary pop master by prominent art world figures such as Charles Saatchi and Simon de Pury, Colbert dedicates his oeuvre to creating dialogues amongst high art themes, contemporary art theory as well as digital culture, subsequently presenting them to the audience via his odes to lobsters.
With the rise of NFTs early this year, the artist has also joined the metaverse by launching his ‘Lobsteropolis City’ and ‘Lobster Land Museum’ in Decentraland earlier in July.
Philip Colbert announcing the lauching of Lobsteropolis in Decentraland in July.
菲利普·考爾伯特於今年7月公報在 Decentraland 推出 Lobsteropolis
(Instragram: @philipcolbert)
「（這系列的合作繪畫）是一段以顏料而非文字進行的實際對話。當中的幽默感、諷刺、深度啟發、閒話家常，通通來自顏料與筆觸的碰撞⋯⋯讓人有種正在觀看某物初次被發現、初次面世的感覺。」
《龍蝦樂園博物館合作繪畫（奧運）》來自菲利普・考爾伯特持續創作中的「合作繪畫」（Collaboration Paintings）系列，本系列圍繞著考爾伯特的另一個分身——他標誌性的龍蝦——及他所創作的卡通世界「龍蝦樂園」（Lobster Land）。考爾伯特在2018年開始創作此系列，向弗朗西斯・培根（Francis Bacon）及巴布羅・畢加索（Pablo Picasso）等多位現代及當代藝術大師致敬。 該系列的早期作品中，這個龍蝦形象並不經常出現。考爾伯特較近期的作品，主要是向安迪・沃荷及尚・米榭・巴斯基亞於1983年至85年聯合創作的一系列作品致敬，這個系列還獲得凱斯・哈林的加持，其中1985年的作品《Olympic Rings》是受1984年洛杉磯夏季奧運會所啟發，而本作則與2020年的東京奧運相關，可見本作是特意向《Olympic Rings》致敬。（2012年，適逢倫敦奧運，《Olympic Rings》曾於倫敦的高古軒畫廊展出。）
考爾伯特運用他的超數碼化普普風格美學，將兩位當代藝術界巨星的經典風格及美學融為一體。在本作中，他將奧運五環放大並賦以繽紛的色彩，令人想起安迪・沃荷1985年的《Olympic Rings》中一再重複出現的五環。巴斯基亞的招牌骷髏頭骨和極具個人風格的塗鴉符號亦散佈於畫面上，如煙花綻放般璀璨。
「當我成為龍蝦時，我才是一個藝術家。」
在這一片色彩爛漫的畫面中，穿著黑色靴子坐著的是考爾伯特的分身——「龍蝦」。當被問到為什麼選擇龍蝦作為他的另一個自我時，考爾伯特解釋：
「龍蝦在藝術中有著歷史深厚的淵源。牠在荷蘭靜物畫中佔據中心的地位，其後又成為了超現實主義中一個帶有象徵意味的符號。」
考爾伯特被查爾斯・薩奇（Charles Saatchi）及西蒙・德・普里（Simon de Pury）等多位藝術界名人譽為當代的普普藝術大師，他致力在高級藝術、當代的藝術理論和數碼文化之間建立橋樑，並透過他對龍蝦的讚頌，將這些交流呈現於觀眾眼前。
隨著今年初NFT的崛起，藝術家亦加入了這股熱潮，於7月在 Decentraland 舉行了一場虛擬展覽「Lobsteropolis City」，並建立了虛擬博物館「Lobster Land Museum」。