Ron Arad - Design New York Tuesday, June 7, 2022 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    The Gallery Mourmans, Maastricht
    Private collection, New York, acquired from the above
    Thence by descent to the present owner

  • Exhibited

    "Ron Arad: No Discipline," The Museum of Modern Art, New York, August 2-October 19, 2009

  • Literature

    Deyan Sudjic, Ron Arad, London, 2001, illustrated p. 203
    Barry Friedman, Ltd., Ron Arad: A Retrospective Exhibition, 1981-2001, New York, 2005, illustrated pp. 19, 99
    Paola Antonelli, et al., Ron Arad: No Discipline, exh. cat., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2009, illustrated p. 121

  • Catalogue Essay

    A celebrated innovator in postmodern design, Ron Arad is often credited with ensconcing the field firmly within the twenty-first century. Arad attended the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem during the early 1970s, soon moving to London, where he established his studio One Off, with collaborator Caroline Thorman in 1981. Even at the inception of his career, Arad employed cutting-edge technologies and novel materials to experiment in furniture-making. The result was a playful resurrection of Expressionism, with unexpected lines and volumes rendered in such materials as polyurethane, carbon, and patinated and sprung steel. The Blown Out of Proportion (B.O.O.P.) vase fully embodies this innovative spirit. Produced in 1998 in conjunction with the Blown Out of Proportion (B.O.O.P.) collection, Arad utilized superplastic aluminum, a novel medium at the time, which allowed for extreme contortions and hollowing, due to its fine-grained nature. To create the vase, Arad heated the aluminum and inflated it through a stencil, forming the ballooning hollows that are characteristic of the series. The present vase was the first and largest work that Ron Arad produced for the B.O.O.P. series, and it was exhibited at the critically acclaimed exhibition, Ron Arad: No Discipline, at the Museum of Modern Art in 2009.

  • Artist Biography

    Ron Arad

    Israeli • 1951

    Ron Arad's work and career is characterized by his movement between modes and constant experimentation. Arad was born in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1951 and studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Art before moving to London in 1973. He began his practice in London in the early 1980s and set up One Off Ltd, focused on limited edition objects, with his partner Caroline Thorman. A decade later he had moved to industrial production techniques and collaborations with large design firms such as Vitra and Kartell.

    A persistent theme throughout his work is innovation and the idea of the "new." Still producing work today, Arad uses the latest technology to produce his designs and also integrates it within his pieces, such as his Lolita Chandelier (2004) that can receive and display text messages. Arad also continually experiments with materials and has an exceptional skill to coax volume and undulation out of them, with a particular affinity for metal. His works such as The Big Easy chair (1988) walk the line between design and sculpture. Once an outsider, Arad's relentless energy to design, build and collaborate has placed him firmly within the highest ranks of the design world.

    View More Works

Property from a Private Collection, New York

43

Monumental and unique "Blown Out Of Proportion (B.O.O.P.)" vase

1998
Superplastic aluminum.
92 x 57 x 12 in. (233.7 x 144.8 x 30.5 cm)
Produced by The Gallery Mourmans, Maastricht, the Netherlands.

Estimate
$30,000 - 50,000 

Sold for $40,320

Contact Specialist

Benjamin Green
Associate Specialist

Associate Head of Sale

bgreen@phillips.com
+1 917 207 9090

Design

New York Auction 7 June 2022