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Avigdor Arikha
Estimate
70,000 - 90,000 USD
Sold
162,500 USD
bidding is closed
Description
- Avigdor Arikha
- Nude on a Sheet
- Signed Arikha and dated 88 (lower right); dated again 25 II 88 (on the reverse)
- Oil on canvas
Provenance
Marlborough Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner, around 1988
Acquired from the above by the present owner, around 1988
Literature
Duncan Thomas, Arikha, London, 1994, illustrated in color, p. 182
Catalogue Note
Arikha's innovative composition paired with his careful handling of the many subtle shades that build up white sheet and flesh infuse this quiet subject with a tense psychological energy.
In Duncan Thomas's monogram on the artist he compares the work to a painting by Lucien Freud, Standing by the Rags, from the same year. "Freud engages in an unremitting onslaught, where the layers of paint aim at the same plasticity as flesh itself; Arikha attempts, with an economy of means, to hold the evanescent luminosity of the model's flesh as something that is almost distinct from the substance that lies beneath the surface, although at the same time contributing to its realization. Few contemporary painters are equipped, either technically or psychologically, to paint from the model in either way." (Thomas, p. 182)