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"I like to skirt it."
—Anna WeyantIn this cheeky work by Anna Weyant, a woman leans over, exposing her backside to the viewer. While her upper body extends out of the painting, the bottom of her titular bum curves out from below a provocatively short white miniskirt. The painting’s light source, shining in from the upper right, creates a chiaroscuro effect that further illuminates her backside, and exposes the shape of her hips underneath the front of the skirt. Sensual and surreal, Weyant brings art history and 2010s internet culture together with a dark sense of humor in Bum, 2020.
With its reserved color palette and smooth, rounded forms, 17th century Dutch art is a natural reference point for Weyant’s œuvre. But unlike the stereotypically straightforward and dour Dutch, Weyant’s work has a sense of mystery—“a little creepiness,” as she puts it—and so, a more medieval sensibility provides the tonal cue for Bum.i Hieronymous Bosch’s creepy and chaotic The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1490-1500, Museo del Prado, Madrid, is a strong art historical touchpoint for Weyant’s darkly humorous nudity.
Details from Hieronymous Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1490-1500. Museo del Prado, Madrid. Images: © Museo Nacional del Prado / Art Resource, NY. In Bosch’s famous altarpiece triptych, naked humans indulge in silly and hedonistic pleasures in the center panel, oblivious to the suffering that awaits them in the afterlife panels in the wings. But even in hell, Bosch retains his sense of humor: his nude figures have musical notation written across their bottoms; bats and smoke spew from their behinds. The work is both repulsive and humorous, deterring and alluring at once. Weyant evokes the spirit of Bosch in Bum, but where Bosch represents 15th century Flanders, Weyant’s renderings are distinctly contemporary.
"Tweens and being in between childhood and adulthood is definitely a period of time in my life and other people’s lives that I’m totally fascinated with and hung up on. It’s a traumatic, dramatic, devastating, and hilarious time that I go back to constantly."
—Anna WeyantFor anyone who, like Weyant, was a teenage girl in the early 2010s, the white miniskirt in Bum is instantly recognizable as a coveted Tumblr fashion staple: the American Apparel tennis skirt. American Apparel, a clothing brand popular in the 2000s and 2010s, was known for its provocative advertising, which featured young, barely-clothed women photographed in a casual, flashbulb style in bedroom settings.
American Apparel advertisement for their tennis skirt style, c. 2010s. The combination of young models, nude bodies, and crumpled bedsheets purposefully evoked the aesthetics of amateur pornography, a connection that was not lost on critics, who expressed concern for the impact that the branding had on teenaged customers who collected and shared the company’s ads on Tumblr, a social blogging website.ii
In 2014, an ad campaign for the very tennis skirt style Weyant evokes in Bum was banned for being “gratuitous and sexist.”iii In the photos, the faceless model bends over, exposing her underwear to the viewer, while the mini skirt, ostensibly the subject of the advertisement, is barely visible, hitched up around her waist. The visual parallels to Weyant’s Bum are striking.
The banned American Apparel campaign image, 2014. In Bum, Weyant takes on the “creepiness” of American Apparel’s imagery in tandem with a respect for the “traumatic, dramatic, devastating and hilarious” teenage experience of being online.iv Where American Apparel was criticized for indulging pedophilic schoolgirl fantasies with their tennis skirt ads, Weyant cites her school uniform skirt’s colors as inspiration for her signature muted color palette.v While American Apparel had a male CEO, Weyant relates personally to being a girl and “craving the power of womanhood;” desiring the sensuality of an American Apparel ad and the “level of agency and confidence” that must come with it.vi
Weyant continues to explore these themes in her burgeoning contemporary practice. As for her approach? Weyant’s response is as witty as Bum: “I like to skirt it.”viiCollector’s Digest
• Anna Weyant’s work has rocketed into the art market over the past year; Phillips was the first auction house to bring her work to market, at the New York Day Sale in June of 2021.
• Her current solo exhibition at New York, Gagosian, “Baby, It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over,” November 3-December 23, 2022, is her first with the gallery.
i Anna Weyant, interviewed by Bill Powers, “The Credible Image: An Interview of Anna Weyant on the Occasion of her Solo Exhibition Loose Screw,” Autre, March 5, 2021, online.
ii Maria Santa Poggi, “The 2014 Tumblr Girl is Back,” Vogue, January 2, 2022, online.
iii Louise Jack, “American Apparel’s ‘sexist’ back to school ad banned,” Campaign US, September 3, 2014, online.
iv Anna Weyant, interviewed by Sasha Bogojev, “Anna Weyant: Welcome to the Dollhouse,” Juxtapoz, 2020, online.
v Anna Weyant, quoted in Bogojev.
vi Anna Weyant, quoted in Powers.
vii Anna Weyant, quoted in Bogojev.Provenance
56 Henry, New York
Private Collection, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner
14
Bum
signed and dated "Anna Weyant 2020 ♥" on the reverse
oil on linen
48 x 30 in. (121.9 x 76.2 cm)
Painted in 2020.
Estimate
$200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $390,600
Amanda Lo Iacono
Global Managing Director and Specialist, Head of Evening Sale, New York
+1 212 940 1278
ALoiacono@phillips.com
Carolyn Mayer
Associate Specialist, Associate Head of Evening Sale, New York
+1 212 940 1206
CMayer@phillips.com
20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale
New York Auction 15 November 2022
1
Ilana Savdie
Marimonda Desplegada
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $176,400
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2
Danica Lundy
Miss Fist Kiss
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $189,000
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3
Lauren Quin
Arrow
Estimate $70,000 - 100,000
Sold for $163,800
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4
Avery Singer
Untitled
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,724,000
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5
Rashid Johnson
Standing Broken Men
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,724,000
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6
Pablo Picasso
Mousquetaire buste
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $2,450,000
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7
Julie Mehretu
Tsunemasa (next to Kaija)
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $4,386,000
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8
Cy Twombly
Untitled
Estimate $35,000,000 - 45,000,000
Sold for $41,640,000
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9
René Magritte
Le météore
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $4,265,000
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10
Amy Sherald
Pilgrimage of the Chameleon
Estimate $1,800,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $2,087,000
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11
Loie Hollowell
Lick, Lick in Purple, maroon-yellow
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,361,000
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12
Tom Wesselmann
Mouth #14 (Marilyn)
Estimate $3,000,000 - 5,000,000
Sold for $3,236,500
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13
René Magritte
Le coup de grâce
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,966,000
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14
Anna Weyant
Bum
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $390,600
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15
Mark Bradford
He Barked Just Like a Watchdog
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $4,870,000
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16
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (Circus No. 12 Face 44.30)
Estimate $8,000,000 - 12,000,000
Sold for $9,809,000
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17
Marc Chagall
Le Père
Estimate $6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Sold for $7,404,500
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18
Marlene Dumas
Snow White in the Wrong Story
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $3,781,000
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19
María Berrío
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $1,603,000
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20
Alex Katz
The Grey Dress
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $2,208,000
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21
Yayoi Kusama
All The Eternal Love
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,966,000
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22
Alexander Calder
Plutôt jaune
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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23
Amy Sherald
Madame Noire
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
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24
Jean-Michel Basquiat
To Repel Ghosts
Estimate $7,000,000 - 10,000,000
Sold for $7,862,500
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25
This lot is no longer available.
26
Yayoi Kusama
Nets Blue
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $2,450,000
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27
Lucy Bull
Untitled
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $478,800
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28
Willem de Kooning
Untitled
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $4,870,000
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29
Milton Avery
Hot Moon
Estimate $1,800,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $2,208,000
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30
Amoako Boafo
Pink Shorts
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $403,200
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31
Rashid Johnson
Untitled Anxious Collage
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $567,000
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32
Joan Mitchell
Cobalt
Estimate $3,000,000 - 4,000,000
Sold for $3,418,000
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33
Andy Warhol
Oxidation
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,450,000
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34
Alexander Calder
Petite croix
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $4,023,000
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35
This lot is no longer available.
36
Willem de Kooning
Event in a Barn
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $3,055,000
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37
Pablo Picasso
Paysage au pin
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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38
Mickalene Thomas
I Can’t See Me Without You
Estimate $350,000 - 550,000
Sold for $441,000
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39
Balthus
La Sieste
Estimate $700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $1,058,500
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40
Andy Warhol
Nosepicker I: Why Pick on Me (The Broad Gave Me My Face But I Can Pick My Own Nose)
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $491,400
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41
Andy Warhol
Living Room
Estimate $250,000 - 450,000
Sold for $315,000
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42
Robert Motherwell
Open No. 25: In Blue with Variations
Estimate $900,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $2,329,000
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43
Luc Tuymans
Absence
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $453,600
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44
Ernie Barnes
Slam Before the Storm
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $604,800
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45
Carmen Herrera
Noche Verde
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $567,000
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46
Anne Truitt
Autumn Dryad
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $567,000
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