W ith Grandmother Clock, Maarten Baas offers his reinterpretation of the “Comtoise” clock, or "grandfather clock" in English. Belonging to his iconic Real Time series that debuted in 2009 at Milan's Salone del Mobile and featuring 12-hour videos, the Grandmother Clock fuses theater, art, film and design simultaneously. The video of the grandmother erasing and then redrawing the hands raises the question of the passage of time and the importance of the "older generation" as the keeper of it. Maarten Baas realised this metaphor as a true tribute to time ticking away with this work.

The first Comtoise clocks appeared during the mid-17th century. The pendulum weight system inside the case determined the height, which ranged from 1.8 to 2.4 meters. Until the early 20th century, these longcase clocks remained the standard for telling time. With the arrival of the digital clock in 1972, the Comtoise clock lost its usefulness. Technological evolution led to the disappearance of this model type. However, many artists and designers have proffered a new dialogue in recent years.

With the shape of the Grandmother Clock, MB pays homage to this timekeeping emblem by retaining the same format to scale as the historic model. Thus, the grandmother seems to stand inside the clock both as a prisoner of time, and being forced to resketch the hands every minute, as the owner of progression. However, it may be assumed that the grandmother continues to live behind this screen while tirelessly doing this chore.

Etymologically, the word "time" comes from Latin tempus, which means "division of time", "era". Stripped of its mechanism and replaced by a video, this clock tells to a certain extent the history of time while trying to recreate its path for 12 hours.

Akin to a set designer, Baas uniquely succeeds in creating beauty by combining imperfection and fleetingness. With spontaneity and a great deal of humor, he formulates objects and installations that leave no one unfazed.

Maarten Baas (1978) is a Dutch artist, who graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2002. Baas is considered one of the most influential designer artists of the early twenty-first century, stating his work straddles boundaries between art and design. He occupies a unique position in the field, embodying conceptual art, craftsmanship, installation, public space and performance into his oeuvre. He is known for his rebellious, intellectual, theatrical and artistic style. The clear majority of his work is handmade in his studio in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

His work is found in numerous private and major museum collections, such as the Museum of Modern Art New York, Victoria & Albert Museum London, Les Arts Décoratifs Paris, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, High Museum of Art Atlanta, Die Neue Sammlung Münich, and the Stedelijk and Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.

Past Auction

Important Design

26 November 2019 | 2:30 PM CET | Paris