Marc Quinn

Acquired directly from the artist in 2008

This work is in very good condition overall. As to be expected on a sculpture installed in an outdoor environment there are areas of light surface soiling, most noticeably along edges and underside of the figure. There is a 1 ½ inch minor surface loss on the right side of the figure's neck, visible upon close inspection. The work is stabilized with steel supports.
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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Myth (Fortuna) is an exquisite example of artist Marc Quinn’s renowned series of sculptures sculpted after supermodel Kate Moss. These reincarnations of Moss are a tribute to both the celebrity herself as well as the female body – a fixation among artists since the dawn of time. In the present work, Kate’s body is configured into an alarming back-bending yoga pose where her legs are hyper-extended backwards over her shoulders. This contortion places the subject into a fascinating realm where Kate’s body is both grotesque yet mythical at the same time. The present sculpture, cast in bronze and painted over with a smooth layer of white paint, is a fine example of contemporary British artist Marc Quinn’s artistic output, where his works are defined by his fixation with the malleability of the human body as well as the contrasting aspects of our lives, from the spiritual and the physical to the cerebral and sexual.

Since 2006, Kate Moss has served as the muse for several of Quinn’s sculptures, all of which depict the model’s perfected, lithe body contorted in yoga poses in a variety of sizes and material. Moss’ cult status was taken to literal and grandiose extremes in 2008 when Marc Quinn unveiled a new statue of Kate Moss, titled Microcosmos (Siren), carved entirely out of 10 kilograms of 18-carat gold. The sculpture was displayed at the British Museum in London, creating a sensation in the media and art world, and was consequently hailed as the largest gold statue of a person ever created since the time of the Pharaohs in ancient Egypt. Marc Quinn’s fascination with and extensive study of British supermodel Kate Moss has been sited in numerous interviews and publications, and it is common fact that the artist aligns her iconic status to and equates her beauty with those of the goddess Venus and a contemporary Sphinx, once claiming that “she is a mirror of ourselves, a knotted Venus of our age.”

Myth (Fortuna) is a celebration of both the contemporary as well as history. While Kate Moss may represent an idol and the ideal beauty of the moment, the female body has long been a fixation among artists throughout art history. From the Romans and Greeks all the way to the Italian painters and sculptors of the High Renaissance, the human body has been idealized and perfected in order to represent not only physical beauty but also a heightened spirituality and moral awareness. The idealization of the female body reached new heights during the Renaissance when painters such as Titian and Botticelli created masterpieces with the goddess Venus as the subject, soon becoming an archetypal representation of sex, sensuality, and timeless feminine beauty. This line of female glorification continues into the 20th Century with the most famous example being Andy Warhol and his obsessive depictions of Marilyn Monroe.

With works like Myth (Fortuna), Marc Quinn becomes highly relevant in the history and progression of artists looking to idolize and immortalize the female body as a timeless, deified entity. The ancient Egyptians made statues of their kings and queens believing that the permanence of the material would turn the spirits of the subjects into deities lasting into eternity. While Kate Moss’ bikini and yoga pose are a departure from traditional depictions in classical Antiquity, the artist’s reincarnation of the cult celebrity in the enduring material of bronze heightens her from a human of flesh and blood into an allegorical woman not unlike the Egyptian Pharaohs or the immortal goddesses and angels depicted in classical masterpieces. The striking creation of Kate Moss is alluring in the power and grace emanating from the realistic contours of the model’s body – a chief indication of Quinn’s mastery of the human form.