Contemporary Discoveries

Contemporary Discoveries

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 24. CS 9.11.16B.

Larry Bell

CS 9.11.16B

Lot Closed

July 19, 09:37 PM GMT

Estimate

50,000 - 70,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Larry Bell

b. 1939

CS 9.11.16B


signed L. Bell and dated 9/11/16 (on the reverse)

mixed media on Hiromi paper mounted on canvas in artist's chosen frame.

62¼ by 42⅜ in.

158.1 by 107.6 cm.

Executed in 2016.


This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.

Hauser and Wirth, Zurich

Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2017

“My work is about the various properties of light and the way it interacts with surfaces.” — Larry Bell


CS 9.11.16B exemplifies Bell’s fascination for light and visual cognition. Part of the Church Studies series, this work was made in his industrial machine-filled Venice studio, which used to house a Christian institution. Through the skillful manipulation and superimposition of materials, Bell creates a curvilinear image which plays with viewers' perception of surface and space. This experimental work illustrates Bell’s commitment to use spontaneity and curiosity as part of his artistic process. Building on techniques used in Mirage Series and Fractions, the artist explores the consequences of applying different layers of vaporized metal to paper.


Larry Bell is one of the great innovators to emerge from the Los Angeles art scene in the 1960s and ‘70s. His significant body of work encompasses sculpture, painting, works on paper, and furniture design. Often associated with the Light and Space movement, which included notable members Robert Irwin and James Turrell, and the West Coast artistic style known as Finish Fetish, Bell’s series of aesthetic breakthroughs with industrial techniques in the late 1960s and ‘70s, most notably his experiments with vacuum-coated glass and coating on paper, expanded upon key concepts of California Minimalism and the Sublime in unique ways. The present work embodies Bell's ongoing commitment to surpass traditional bounds of artistic making and viewers’ experience of artistic forms.