Urs Fischer

Gagosian Gallery, Paris
Private Collection, New York

Paris, Gagosian Gallery, Urs Fischer: Schmutz Schmutz, April - May 2012

Urs Fischer, Urs Fischer, New York, 2013, pp. 398-399, illustrated in color

This work is in very good and sound condition overall. There is evidence of light wear and handling to each of the nails and their shadows, which appears as scattered surface soiling and is only visible under close inspection.
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.
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© Urs Fischer. Courtesy of the artist; Gagosian Gallery; and Sadie Coles HQ, London. Photo: Stefan Altenburger. 

Fischer is one of the most innovative and pioneering artists working today; a creative maverick whose oeuvre has consistently transcended boundaries and challenged accepted artistic conventions. Working in a dizzying range of media and styles, Fischer’s imagination has so far given rise to an extraordinary variety of installations, sculptures, photography and painting, all of which share a subtle sense of mockery and an amusingly subversive wit. Figural portraits in wax that are allowed to slowly melt away, swinging light installations and vibrating furniture are all examples of Fischer’s endlessly versatile technique. Everyday objects are appropriated and employed in wholly unexpected juxtapositions, causing the onlooker to question their response to the surrounding environment and further extending and interrogating the idea of the Duchampian ‘readymade’ as well as the Surrealist concept of the ‘found object’. Schmuckli highlights the unique range of Fischer’s creative language: “Drawing freely from a multiplicity of sources without regard for tradition and hierarchy, his work effortlessly combines elements of high, mainstream, and underground cultures in a convincing demonstration of how irrelevant such categorisations have become. Fischer’s work, oscillating between rawness and tenderness, all-too-knowing experience and wilful innocence, evokes an existence ruled by extremes that deftly balances humour and tragedy, delicacy and brutality, complexity and banality, to create poignant vignettes of everyday life” (ibid.). Simultaneously witty yet also challenging in its elevation of a ‘basic’ object to the level of monumental public sculpture, the present work serves as a thought-provoking explication of Fischer’s utterly distinctive and highly diverse aesthetic dialectic.