Christopher Wool - Under the Influence New York Thursday, September 19, 2013 | Phillips

Under the Influence

New York 19 September 2013 2pm

  • Provenance

    Published by Schellmann Contemporary Art Production, New York

  • Exhibited

    New York, Petzel Gallery, DOOR CYCLE , June 29 – August 11, 2007 (another example exhibited)

  • Catalogue Essay

    Along with making abstract paintings, there's a little bit of an investigation into what abstract painting can be.
    CHRISTOPHER WOOL, 2009

    For decades, Christopher Wool’s artistic practice has been concerned with peeling back the layers of abstraction and representation, creatively blurring the lines between these two seemingly opposing forces. This tension, which captures the essence of modern painting, often regulates an artist’s powers of assertion. Yet throughout his celebrated career, Wool has demonstrated that abstraction and representation are not enemies but rather useful creative allies, awarding artists boundless freedom when negotiating their individual means of expression.

    The present lot, Three Women (Light I, II, III), sheds light on Wool’s belief that the meaning of a work relies on both physical and conceptual interaction. This series of silk-screens illustrates the clear and resonant progression Wool has made over his three-decade long career, catapulting the age-old genre of painting to new heights as it questions the very tradition. By engaging in the act of silk-screening, Wool breaks down the traditional means of making images, filtering his own intended image through a dot-matrix process that recalibrates the relationship between hand-stroke and representation. Like in Wool’s most sought-after and dynamic works, in Three Women (Light I, II, III) we see his exploration of the mechanics of expression, achieved through an intricate landscape of gesture and material. His works are a cornucopia of arabesque strokes and bold lines that expertly blend the acts of mark-making and erasure, highlighting the importance of the artist’s presence and intent in the meaning of his works.

42

Christopher Wool

Three works: Three Women (Light I, II, III)

2005
silkscreen on Saunders Watercolor paper
each sheet 81 1/2 x 50 in. (207 x 127 cm.)
each frame 85 1/2 x 53 3/4 x 2 in. (217.2 x 136.5 x 5.1 cm.)
Each signed, numbered, dated and respectively inscribed "Wool 2005 3/9 I, II, III" along the lower margin.Each work is number 3 from an edition of 9 plus 3 artist's proofs, with variants in shades of light, medium and dark rose.

Estimate
$200,000 - 300,000 

Sold for $437,000

Contact Specialist
Benjamin Godsill
Head of Sale bgodsill@phillips.com
+1 212 940 1260

Under the Influence

New York 19 September 2013 2pm