Hamburg Kennedy Photographs, New York Private Collection
Catalogue Essay
Mark Grotjahn is one of the most significant artists to emerge from the west coast in the last decade and a half. His iconic, highly graphic practice of painting and drawing owes a clear debit to the high priests of early modernism specifically Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Mondrian. However, Grotjahan infuses this history with a visceral energy that lends his work an almost bawdy energy.
Grotjahn’s renowned butterfly drawings—as evinced in the present, perfectly representative lot, Untitled (Butterfly)—gently unify geometric abstraction and the natural world. The butterfly motif is based around a central line that runs vertically down the composition; the open wings rendered in primary colors emanate outward with a heavy sense of applied force and rigorous execution. Grotjahn utilizes two-point perspective to create the semblance of depth allowing the butterfly to float off the page. As Grotjahn states, “You can see in my butterfly works that they are very obsessive.” (Mark Grotjahn in M. Gnyp, Mark Grotjahn, Zoo Magazine #38) They illustrate an intensive and pre-planned geometric scheme. The rational form and perspective of the drawing is balanced by the playful bright hues of red, green, orange and yellow butterfly wings.
2003 colored pencil on paper 17 x 14 in. (43.2 x 35.6 cm.) Initialed "MG 03" lower right; further signed and dated "Mark Grotjahn 2003," and dedicated on the reverse.
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $137,000
Contact Specialist Benjamin Godsill
Head of Sale
bgodsill@phillips.com +1 212 940 1256