- 474
Elaine Sturtevant
bidding is closed
Description
- Elaine Sturtevant
- Oldenburg Store Object, Bacon and Egg
- signed, titled and dated '67 on the reverse
- chickenwire, cloth, plaster, enamel
- 54 by 34 by 23 in. 137 by 86 by 9 cm.
- Executed in 1967.
Provenance
William J. Hokin, Chicago
Christie's East, New York, February 21, 1995, Lot 244
Acquired by the present owner from the above sale
Exhibited
New York, 623 East 9th Street, The Store of Claes Oldenburg, 1967
Frankfurt am Main, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Sturtevant: The Brutal Truth, September 2004 - January 2005
Frankfurt am Main, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Sturtevant: The Brutal Truth, September 2004 - January 2005
Literature
Doris von Drateln, "Der Dialog mit dem Gleiche. Enteignung der Appropriation." Kunstforum International, No. 111, January - February 1991, p. 184, illustrated
Lena Maculan, ed., Sturtevant: Catalogue Raisonné 1964-2004, Ostfildern-Ruit, 2004, no. 274, p. 120, illustrated in color
Catalogue Note
In 1967, Peter Roehr stated that "Art is what questions the previous definitions of art." (Udo Kittelmann and Mario Kramer, Sturtevant: Catalogue Raisonné 1964-2004, Painting, Sculpture, Film and Video, Frankfurt am Main, 2004, p.33) This philosophy is exemplified in the work of Elaine Sturtevant. Her work forces the viewer to reassess many of the artistic achievements and insights so unwaveringly revered. She offers a fresh perspective on art, because, more radically than anyone else, Sturtevant questions the notion of what art and originality are supposed to be.
As Udo Kittelmann and Mario Kramer noted, "It is interesting to note that, in the 1960s, Sturtevant's artist colleagues were realizing artworks which also played with existing pictures, images of everyday mass culture bearing attributes of multiplication, reproduction and seriality." (Udo Kittelmann & Mario Kramer, Sturtevant, The Brutal Truth, Frankfurt am Main 2004, p.17) As such, Sturtevant found herself ahead of her contemporaries, including Andy Warhol, who recognized the magnitude of Sturtevant's artistic concept at a very early stage. Indeed Warhol responded immediately to her request that he place the original silk screen of his Flowers series at her disposal.
Moreover, "Sturtevant's work titles are a record of the artist's last name and the title of the original work... the significance of this aspect lies in the fact that the name alone can already possess iconic character, behind which the actual work often vanishes. To refer to herself, Sturtevant also consistently favors the use of her surname only, omitting the gender-specificity of a first name. In a serious game, she plays with the original, with authorship, with the role of the genuine creator and with the myth of the work and the artwork in a male-dominated (art) world." (Udo Kittelmann & Mario Kramer, Sturtevant, The Brutal Truth, Frankfurt am Main 2004, p.18)
Oldenburg Store Object, Bacon and Egg is a wonderful example of Sturtevant's nuanced appropriation. Part of a project executed in 1967, Sturtevant created her own version of Claes Oldenburg's infamous Store in the East Village, a few blocks from the orginal. As Leo Castelli reflected, "it was really at the time an incredibly original idea. It was quite amazing" (Leo Castelli, from Dan Cameron, "A Conversation with Leo Castelli and Elaine Sturtevant,"Flash Art, 143, November-December, 1988, p. 76)
As Udo Kittelmann and Mario Kramer noted, "It is interesting to note that, in the 1960s, Sturtevant's artist colleagues were realizing artworks which also played with existing pictures, images of everyday mass culture bearing attributes of multiplication, reproduction and seriality." (Udo Kittelmann & Mario Kramer, Sturtevant, The Brutal Truth, Frankfurt am Main 2004, p.17) As such, Sturtevant found herself ahead of her contemporaries, including Andy Warhol, who recognized the magnitude of Sturtevant's artistic concept at a very early stage. Indeed Warhol responded immediately to her request that he place the original silk screen of his Flowers series at her disposal.
Moreover, "Sturtevant's work titles are a record of the artist's last name and the title of the original work... the significance of this aspect lies in the fact that the name alone can already possess iconic character, behind which the actual work often vanishes. To refer to herself, Sturtevant also consistently favors the use of her surname only, omitting the gender-specificity of a first name. In a serious game, she plays with the original, with authorship, with the role of the genuine creator and with the myth of the work and the artwork in a male-dominated (art) world." (Udo Kittelmann & Mario Kramer, Sturtevant, The Brutal Truth, Frankfurt am Main 2004, p.18)
Oldenburg Store Object, Bacon and Egg is a wonderful example of Sturtevant's nuanced appropriation. Part of a project executed in 1967, Sturtevant created her own version of Claes Oldenburg's infamous Store in the East Village, a few blocks from the orginal. As Leo Castelli reflected, "it was really at the time an incredibly original idea. It was quite amazing" (Leo Castelli, from Dan Cameron, "A Conversation with Leo Castelli and Elaine Sturtevant,"Flash Art, 143, November-December, 1988, p. 76)