- 2
Nate Lowman
Estimate
350,000 - 450,000 USD
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Description
- Nate Lowman
- Black Escalade
- silkscreen ink and latex on canvas laid down on panel
- diameter: 70.5 in. 179 cm.
- Executed in 2005.
Provenance
Maccarone Gallery, New York
Private Collection, California
Acquired by the present owner from the above
Private Collection, California
Acquired by the present owner from the above
Condition
This work is in excellent condition. Very close inspection reveals minute areas of minor wear to one or two of the extreme overturn corner tips. Under ultraviolet light, there are no apparent restorations. The canvas is not framed.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
Catalogue Note
Brilliantly juxtaposing the raw appeal of familiar cultural debris and an energetic re-examination of Pop Art, Nate Lowman’s Black Escalade is a concise, pulsating summation of the twenty-first century’s visual vernacular. Referencing his native southern California during the infamous race riots and O. J. Simpson trial of the 1990s, Lowman's work is frequently guided by the troubling necessity of violence in analyzing and constructing cultural relations. Based on trompe-l'œil magnets of bullet holes meant to be placed on cars, Black Escalade reassesses the conceptualization of violence in popular culture as a direct successor to the remarkable Death and Disaster series of Andy Warhol and the comic-book war paintings of Roy Lichtenstein.
Metaphorically, the deafening shot of the gun is amplified by the work’s imposing scale and subsequently muffled by a cloak of silkscreen dots; while they momentarily relieve the wound’s grotesqueness, the dots allude to printing and mass reproduction, the nonchalant prevalence of violence in media culture and the grim desensitization it triggers. The invisible, explosive blow of the bullet has been appropriated and distilled into a shaped canvas that adjusts itself to register only the precise physical outline of its subject. Having escaped the containment of the traditional picture frame, the renegade bullet hole exhales a corrosive, burgeoning vehemence that almost crumples its surroundings. Its destructive force culminates in a bottomless black hole at the center of the image, sinking through the wall and into another void. Black Escalade can be perceived to maintain a sense of optimism, as this record of the bullet’s collision with its target resembles a supernova, the genesis of a new universe. Yet, “America’s built on violence,” Lowman has said. “It’s about killing people and taking land and private property and getting. It’s all manifest destiny; totally brutal.” (the artist interviewed by Asher Penn, Bad Day Magazine, Issue 5, Summer 2009)
Metaphorically, the deafening shot of the gun is amplified by the work’s imposing scale and subsequently muffled by a cloak of silkscreen dots; while they momentarily relieve the wound’s grotesqueness, the dots allude to printing and mass reproduction, the nonchalant prevalence of violence in media culture and the grim desensitization it triggers. The invisible, explosive blow of the bullet has been appropriated and distilled into a shaped canvas that adjusts itself to register only the precise physical outline of its subject. Having escaped the containment of the traditional picture frame, the renegade bullet hole exhales a corrosive, burgeoning vehemence that almost crumples its surroundings. Its destructive force culminates in a bottomless black hole at the center of the image, sinking through the wall and into another void. Black Escalade can be perceived to maintain a sense of optimism, as this record of the bullet’s collision with its target resembles a supernova, the genesis of a new universe. Yet, “America’s built on violence,” Lowman has said. “It’s about killing people and taking land and private property and getting. It’s all manifest destiny; totally brutal.” (the artist interviewed by Asher Penn, Bad Day Magazine, Issue 5, Summer 2009)