Marc Quinn

Private Collection, London

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is deeper and richer in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There are a small number of inconsistencies to the metal surface, original and in keeping with the artist's working process.
"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."

"What's interesting about Kate is there's 50 billion image of her but there's no single, iconic one. There can't be – because she is legion, she is this mutable, continual transforming being. To permanently embody her would be like transforming that abstract image of god or a goddess into something tangible and physical... " The artist cited in: Exhibition Catalogue, London, British Museum, Siren, 2008-2009., p. 23

In Byzantium, Marc Quinn takes as his muse the face of one of the world's most famous supermodels, and casts her as a golden icon; the definitive contemporary Venus. Steeped in art-historical illusion and cultural referents, the monumental head constitutes very quintessence of Quinn's dialectic concern with identity, human embodiment and representation.

An immensely powerful belief-system in contemporary society, the cult of celebrity was most famously first identified by Andy Warhol as inhabiting a similar if not equivalent position to that of a religion within popular culture. Warhol's Gold Marilyn Monroe from 1962 now housed in the Museum of Modern Art transformed the ubiquitous visage of Monroe into an undeniable object of veneration directly reminiscent of Christian Byzantine icon paintings. Similarly enshrined in gold, Quinn's Byzantium stands as twenty-first century's successor to Warhol's masterpiece. Akin to Warhol's constant recycling of Marilyn's likeness, Kate Moss has become a near-obsessional subject within Quinn's work since 2000, when he created a life-sized sculpture of Moss for a Vogue photo-shoot which was thereafter transformed into an ice sculpture for the 2002 Rapture exhibition at the Barbican Centre. Indeed, idolatry underlies Quinn's evocation of Moss: as the artist has declared, "I was looking for a current incarnation of the Venus/ Aphrodite archetype", an "effective mirror for ourselves – our desires, our obsessions our dreams" (Marc Quinn in: Exhibition Catalogue, London, British Museum, Siren, 2008-2009, p.18).