- 216
Thomas Houseago
Description
- Thomas Houseago
- Figure 2
- wood, graphite, oil stick, plaster, hemp and iron rebar
- 228.6 by 139 by 83 cm. 90 by 54 3/4 by 32 5/8 in.
- Executed in 2008.
Provenance
Saatchi Collection, London
Christie’s, London, 14 February 2012, Lot 28
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Exhibited
Norwich, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Thomas Houseago: Where the Wild Things Are, July 2012 - January 2013
Literature
Condition
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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
As evidenced by Figure 2, Houseago is interested in evoking the power of figurative art, a prominent theme in his oeuvre. His work offers a critical contemplation of the human form that is both primitive and contemporary, encouraging the viewer to relate to it through identification and natural instinct. As Houseago has explained: “I’m just really interested in how (…) the body appears. What it’s like to look and live with human beings. I’m fascinated by that. And how you can express that” (Thomas Houseago quoted in: The Public Art Fund Lecture at the New School, 2010).
The present work possesses a sense of urgency, resulting from the artist’s intention to imbue his sculpture with the spontaneity and freshness of drawing, most evident here in the expressive strokes of graphite visible throughout its surface that help the work exude the traces of its making. Having previously been held in the prestigious Saatchi Collection in London, Figure 2 is an important example of the artist’s celebrated practice,that challenges the preconceptions of visual form and their associated values through its content and making, creating an alternative history that reflects a more intimate and empathetic narrative.