- 124
Art & Language
Estimate
55,000 - 75,000 GBP
bidding is closed
Description
- Art & Language
- Index: Incident in a Museum VI
- stamped with the artists' signature, signed and dated 1986 on the reverse
- oil on canvas with two oil on canvas inserts laid down on board
- overall: 176 by 273.5 cm. 69 3/8 by 107 3/4 in.
Provenance
Lisson Gallery, London
Anton and Annick Herbert Collection, Ghent
Christie's, New York, Selected Works from The Collection of Anton & Annick Herbert for the Benefit of the Herbert Foundation, 9 November 2011, Lot 52
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Anton and Annick Herbert Collection, Ghent
Christie's, New York, Selected Works from The Collection of Anton & Annick Herbert for the Benefit of the Herbert Foundation, 9 November 2011, Lot 52
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Exhibited
London, Lisson Gallery, Art & Language, Confessions: Incidents in a Museum, 1986, pp. 18 and 31, illustrated
Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Art & Language: Les Peintures, 1987, p.66, no. 26, illustrated in colour
Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Transformation, 1992
Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Art & Language: Les Peintures, 1987, p.66, no. 26, illustrated in colour
Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Transformation, 1992
Literature
Richard Francis, "Your "if" is the only Peacemaker... Art & Language's Museum Paintings" in Artscribe, June-July 1986, pp. 22-23, illustrated
Condition
Colour:
The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate although there are fewer yellow undertones to the background, which tends more towards grey in the original. The yellow highlights are a pale yellow in the original.
Condition:
This work is in very good condition. Extremely close inspection reveals some hairline cracks isolated to the thicker impastoed areas, and some pressed impasto peaks. Further very close inspection reveals some thin cracks to the extreme edges of the canvas inserts, and a pinprick sized, unobtrusive puncture towards the lower edge of the composition, approximately 55 cm. from the lower left corner. No restoration is apparent when examined 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."
"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."
Catalogue Note
“In the world they propose, the prospective artistic objects of curatorial celebration and enthusiasm already have their being as travesties, fragments and ruins. The museum in question is a figurative presence in every work in the series. It does not appear each time in the same guise or under the same aspect, but it is plausibly the same institution which is referred to in each of the paintings, and in each of them this institution serves to establish the dimensions of a large illusory space. It also serves to define and to delimit a form of allegorical world, a world aesthetically removed from the actual conditions of distribution of high culture, yet one within which those conditions can be referred to and their paradoxes figuratively elaborated and explored.”
CHARLES HARRISON
essays on Art and Language, MIT PRESS, 2001, p. 217