拍品 33
  • 33

羅伊·李奇登斯坦

估價
1,000,000 - 1,500,000 GBP
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招標截止

描述

  • 羅伊·李奇登斯坦
  • 《靜物:蘋果與葡萄》
  • 款識:畫家簽名並紀年72(背面)
  • 油彩、麥格納壓克力顏料畫布
  • 55.9 x 76.2公分
  • 22 x 30英寸

來源

Leo Castelli Gallery, New York
Sidney and Frances Lewis Collection, New York
Susan and Dixon Butler Collection, Washington
Waddington Galleries, London
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 1996

Condition

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate although the red of the apple and outline of the grapes are slightly deeper and richer in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. No restoration is apparent under ultra violet 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."

拍品資料及來源

Still Life: Apple and Grapes is one of the most visually arresting and striking of Roy Lichtenstein’s Still Life paintings of the 1970s. Innately joyful in its celebration of the primary hues, yellow and red, the colours dominate the vibrant composition, imbuing the traditional accoutrements of a Dutch Seventeenth Century still life – fruit and table – with a brilliantly modern sensibility.

Lichtenstein first attempted the still life as subject matter briefly in his 1961-62 paintings of single objects, such as Tire, 1962. Placed against a flat monochromatic background and rendered in black and white, Tire is a bold example of Lichtenstein's early forays into the stark, graphic style common to print advertisements.  Returning to the still life in 1971, Lichtenstein's later canvases depict more complex compositions yet retain the highly graphic quality of his earlier works. By the time Lichtenstein came to create Still Life: Apple and Grapes in 1972, the confident composition reveals an instinctive assurance arising from his earlier experiments within the genre.

The extensive use of red is particularly noticeable, a colour Lichtenstein was particularly intrigued by:  "I use colour in the same way as line.  I want it oversimplified - anything that could be vaguely red becomes red.  It is mock insensitivity.  Actual colour adjustment is achieved through manipulation of size, shape and juxtaposition."  (Roy Lichtenstein interviewed by G.R. Swenson cited in Exhibition Catalogue, London, Tate Gallery, Roy Lichtenstein, 1968, p. 9). Lichtenstein wittily plays with our preconceived notions of perspective so that there is no real sense of depth, flattening the table surface against the wall to such an extent that the fruit appears to hover at the centre of the configuration; similarly, no shadow mars the objects, though a delicate square of bright light adorning the deep red of the apple hints at a sun-lit window beyond the confines of the canvas. Though Still Life: Apple and Grapes is highly idealised in Lichtenstein’s signature style, the fruit still appears remarkably tactile and appealing in its vitality, with the grapes in particular inviting bacchanalian associations. The result is an immensely attractive work bursting with joie-de-vivre and sheer unbounded exuberance which aptly conveys the artist’s fascination with his subject: “…My work isn’t about form. It’s about seeing. I’m excited about seeing things and I’m interested in the way I think other people saw things. I suppose ‘seeing’ at its most profound level may be synonymous with form, or rather form is the result of unified seeing.” (The artist, cited in Exhibition Catalogue, Basel, Foundation Beyeler, Roy Lichtenstein, 1998, p. 30).

Lichtenstein - who along with Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg and Tom Wesselmann is considered a giant of Pop art and a key figure in the continuing story of avant-garde art in 20th century America – worked in an instantly identifiable style, developing his own unique artistic lexicon. He gained initial critical attention for his apocryphal paintings sourced from comic-books and advertisements, but, in retrospect, this use of existing imagery can be seen as the opening salvo in a long, extremely successful, career that turned to art history and its many traditions and genres for inspiration. As Lichtenstein's focus turned to Fine Art rather than commercial art, he used canonical works from previous movements as his source imagery. The Still Lifes of the 1970s, like their predecessors from the 1960s, feature food and domestic items common for their time, collected at the centre of the canvas. A quotation from a 1966 interview with David Sylvester serves to explain Pop art's insistence upon compositional focus of a centralized object. "In America," said Lichtenstein, "the biggest is always the best" (Originally recorded in January 1966 by David Sylvester in New York City for broadcast by BBC Third Programme. The interview was re-edited for publication in 1997 for David Sylvester's Some Kind of Reality, London, 1997). Still Life: Apple and Grapes provides ample illustration of this concept: both the apple and grapes appear uncommonly large, reinforcing the idea of America as the ‘land of plenty’. Channeled through Roy Lichtenstein's iconic visual idiom Still Life: Apple and Grapes delivers an utterly arresting reinvigoration of the still life genre.