Ged Quinn

Wilkinson Gallery, London
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 2005

Bristol, Spike Island, The Heavenly Machine, 2005
St Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum; London, Saatchi Gallery, Newspeak: British Art Now, 2009-10

Exhibition Catalogue, London, Wilkinson Gallery, Ged Quinn: My Great Unhappiness Gives Me a Right to Your Benevolence, 2007-08, no. 5, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate although the tonality of the sky is warmer in the original while the landscape is slightly cooler in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is minor wear to the bottom left corner tip. No restoration is apparent under ultraviolet light.
"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."

God Knows Where This Is, executed in 2004-5, forms part of a small but significant strand of Ged Quinn’s oeuvre.  In a similar vein to Gerhard Richter, the elegiac process of painting the photographed image is explored with rigour and delicacy. The expansive and sublime landscape transcribes - with certain pregnant additions - an image of Yosemite National Park taken by Nineteenth Century landscape photographer Carleton Watkins. The exquisite tonal modulations of early silver gelatin and albumen printing are sewn into the fabric of a symbolic and self-reflexive narrative that joins together elements of the scene. A portrait of a shaman-like Walt Whitman donning the large antlers of St. Hubert hangs from the solitary pine, a cross-cultural symbol of redemptive self-sacrifice. Depicted in the midst of an imagined suicide, Whitman’s poetic tributes to the beauty, pleasures, and mystical powers of American wilderness are ambiguously evoked, drawing the viewer through personal and social ideas of memory and identity.  Continuing Quinn’s exploration of the historical landscape genre, God Knows Where This Is extends the artist’s critical inquiry of natural idylls, this time drawing not on the European tradition of Claude Lorrain but on the American mythos of vast and supposedly empty territorial reaches.