Sarah Rapson

Courtesy the artist and Essex Street / Maxwell Graham Gallery, New York

Cathedral Evening is part of an ongoing series of works titled Love is Everywhere, that Sarah Rapson began over 20 years ago. The work is a drawing in an unconventional sense. The only willful marks made by Rapson are subtle ink renderings of black wigs atop the heads of two figures within the scene. The scene itself enters a spacious museum where Ronald Bladen’s Minimalist masterwork “Cathedral Evening”, 1971, is guarded over by two suited figures. The scene is only perceived through the portal of an old art history book page, itself fragmented, folded, mended, hole punched and holy. 

Sarah Rapson’s practice incorporates video, painting, audio recording, collage, and drawing. She is known for her use of nontraditional materials, which include house paint, sand stone, ash, marble dust, and scrap wood salvaged from construction sites. Her work often contains found photographs and newspaper clippings, the latter frequently germaine to the art market, art criticism, and the deaths of various art luminaries. Rapson’s interventions are wide-ranging: hand-drawn wigs, home phone numbers and addresses, and data related to currency conversion are all routinely incorporated and then obscured, rendering her work simultaneously absurd and deeply personal.

Recent solo exhibitions of Rapson’s work include those at Essex Street, New York; Yoshii Gallery, New York; and Zürcher Studio, New York. She has been included in shows at Coustof Waxman, New York; Spazio Ostrakan, Milan; and Hansel & Gretel Picture Garden, New York.

Please note that while this auction is hosted on Sothebys.com, it is being administered by the Art Institute of Chicago’s Society for Contemporary Art (the “SCA”), and all post-sale matters (inclusive of invoicing and property pickup/shipment) will be handled by the SCA. As such, Sotheby’s will share the contact details for the winning bidders with the SCA so that they may be in touch directly post-sale.