Provenance
Modern Institute, Glasgow
Catalogue Essay
Jim Lambie’s Doors sculptures are deservedly the best-known of all his works. Their references are as rich as their colours are striking. The found objects are transformed to play on the tensions inherent in dualities such as art and craft, and decoration and function, and, as with most of Lambie’s work, these are explored with reference to music. The title of the present lot, Night Divides the Day, is taken from the song lyrics of ‘Break on Through (To the Other Side)’ by the psychedelic rock band The Doors. Even though the music is not part of the work, its overt reference to a well-known song by a famous band has a significant impact upon the viewer. As the artist has stated in an interview in 2005: “I want to suggest the way a space changes when you put a record on. I want to set up this intense psychological space.” ( www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3647142/In-the-studio-Jim-Lambie.html).
Lambie’s work presents a contorted, bright blue monochrome door, which is hung on to the wall like a painting. The volume of the work against the flat wall underlines its spatial aspects and sculptural qualities, which extend into the space it occupies. While this can be seen as a take on minimalist sculpture, his work references other key 20th-century art movements. The abstraction is here not lyrical, but has a Pop art dimension in its use of an everyday object and bright primary monochrome colour. Cut up and stripped of its utilitarian purpose, Lambie’s door becomes a deconstruction of a door an enigmatic postmodern icon for our times.
“Dismembered doors, cut up and folded in on themselves also bear mirrored surfaces in a crude visual pun, in part after William Blake (‘If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite’, William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 1793), albeit via Aldous Huxley’s Doors of Perception (1954), in turn via Jim Morrison’s The Doors – and more particularly, via a much replayed performance of the band’s ‘Light My Fire’ on the Ed Sullivan Show, when the band performed on a studio set dressed with hanging household doors.” (Rob Tufnell, ‘Psychedelic Soul’, in Jim Lambie: Voidoid, Glasgow, pp. 49–51)

3

Jim Lambie

Night Divides the Day

2003
Wood, enamel paint and mirrored perspex.
198.5 × 90 × 40 cm (78 x 35 2/5 x 15 3/5 in).

Estimate
£40,000 - 60,000 ♠

Sold for £91,250

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

17 Feb 2011
London

1
Wade Guyton
Untitled
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000
Sold for £213,650
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2
Mary Heilmann
Rude Boy
Estimate £70,000 - 90,000 ‡
Sold for £103,250
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3
Jim Lambie
Night Divides the Day
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000 ♠
Sold for £91,250
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4
Lucio Fontana
Concetto spaziale, Attesa
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000
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5
Günther Uecker
Mutation
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 ♠
Sold for £223,250
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6
Robert Morris
Felt
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000
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7
Georg Herold
Untitled
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000 ♠
Sold for £121,250
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8
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate £300,000 - 500,000 ♠
Sold for £361,250
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9
Peter Fischli and David Weiss
4 Hostessen (4 Stewardesses)
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ♠
Sold for £277,250
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10
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate £350,000 - 550,000 ‡♠
Sold for £337,250
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11
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Overrun
Estimate £1,000,000 - 1,500,000 ‡
Sold for £1,127,650
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12
Raqib Shaw
Absence of God III... And His Tears of Blood Will Drown the Cities of Men II
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡
Sold for £553,250
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13
Anselm Reyle
Harmony
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000 ♠
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14
Anselm Reyle
Untitled
Estimate £70,000 - 100,000 ♠
Sold for £79,250
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15
Subodh Gupta
No. 1
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 ‡
Sold for £121,250
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16
Donald Judd
Untitled (89-30)
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000 ‡
Sold for £169,250
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17
Ilya Kabakov and Emilia Kabakov
The Painting on an Easel
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ♠
Sold for £361,250
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18
Michelangelo Pistoletto
Ritratto sigg. Lerre (Portrait of Mr. Lerre)
Estimate £70,000 - 90,000 ♠
Sold for £67,250
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19
Martin Kippenberger
Mirror for Hang-Over Bud
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000
Sold for £145,250
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20
Robert Rauschenberg
Address Unknown
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ‡
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21
Martin Kippenberger
Untitled
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
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22
Albert Oehlen
Untitled
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ♠
Sold for £193,250
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23
Karel Appel
Birds Over the Red Sea
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
Sold for £205,250
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24
Victor Vasarely
Cassiopée II NB
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ‡
Sold for £157,250
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25
Arnaldo Pomodoro
Disco con Sfera
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ♠
Sold for £61,250
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26
Bill Viola
Basin of Tears
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000 Ω
Sold for £181,250
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27
Marlene Dumas
Equality
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ♠
Sold for £121,250
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28
Dan Colen
Wouldn't it be Nice
Estimate £20,000 - 30,000 †
Sold for £85,250
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29
Martin Creed
Work no. 230 (Don’t Worry)
Estimate £30,000 - 40,000 ♠
Sold for £51,650
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Contemporary Art Evening Sale

17 Feb 2011 London

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Provenance

Catalogue Essay

3

Jim Lambie

Night Divides the Day

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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17 Feb 2011
London