Lot 201
  • 201

Carmen Laffón Seville, b. 1934

Estimate
35,000 - 45,000 GBP
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Description

  • Carmen Laffón
  • Máquina de Coser Cubierta (The Sewing Machine)
  • signed and dated Carmen Laffón 78 92 l.r.

  • oil on canvas

  • 146 by 114cm., 57½ by 45in.

Provenance

Galería Egam, Madrid
Coleccíon Arte y Naturaleza, Madrid
Purchased by the present owner from the above

Exhibited

Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Carmen Laffón. Bodegones, Figuras y Paisejas, 1992, no. 26 (illustrated in the catalogue)
Manila, Museo del Pueblo Filipino; Busán, South Korea, Metropolitan Museum of Busán; Montevideo, Centro Cultural de España; Roma, Academia de España, Carmen Laffón. Sculptures, Paintings, Drawings, Sociedad Estatal para la Acción Cultural Exterior, 2003 (illustrated in colour in the catalogue)

Condition

Original canvas. Some of the pigments fluoresce under ultraviolet light though his does not appear to be retouching. Apart from some very faint craquelure towards the left edge this work is in good overall condition. Held in a simple wooden slip frame painted grey.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

Painted between 1978 and 1992, Laffon in her painting draws on a plurality of twentieth-century artistic ideas and influences, from the haunting interiors of Symbolist painters James McNeil Whistler and Vilhelm Hammershøi to Spain's own avant-garde and beyond. At once poetic and surreal, calming and disturbing, Máquina de Coser Cubierta takes an everyday object and transforms it into something else. Just as Marcel Duchamp invited the viewer to look at everyday objects in a new light as works of art in their own right, so Laffon takes this a stage further. By shrouding an ordinary sewing machine in a ghostly white sheet she echoes Christo's 'gentle disturbances' in order to refocus our impressions of a familar object.