Sol LeWitt - Evening & Day Editions London Wednesday, January 17, 2024 | Phillips
  • Following Joseph Beuys’ death in 1986, Jörg Schellman and Bernd Klüser co-published a portfolio of thirty artworks from thirty artists to commemorate Beuys’ life. Over the previous two decades, Schellmann and Klüser collaborated frequently with Beuys on exhibitions, books and many innovative editioned artworks. Beuys was a leading figure in the Fluxus and Conceptual Art movements and he fervently championed the potency of the idea and the transformative ability of art in society. Like Beuys, the artists invited to contribute to the portfolio, including Keith Haring, Cindy Sherman and Nam June Paik, were trailblazers of contemporary art, working against the grain to subvert the status quo.

    “When an artist uses a conceptual form of art it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand, and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.”
    —Sol LeWitt

    • Provenance

      Personal copy of the publisher and part of the Archive of Edition Schellmann since time of publication

    • Literature

      Barbara Krakow Gallery 1986.03
      Jörg Schellmann, ed., Forty Are Better Than One, Munich/New York, 2009, p. 212 and p. 374

    • Artist Biography

      Sol LeWitt

      American • 1928 - 2007

      Connected to the Conceptual and Minimalist art movements of the 1960s and '70s, the artist and theorist Sol LeWitt was a pivotal figure in driving 'idea' art into the mainstream art discourse. Redefining what constituted a work of art and its genesis, LeWitt explored these ideas through wall drawings, paintings, sculptures, works on paper and prints.

      Using a prescription to direct the creation of a work, the artist's hand subordinated to the artist's thoughts, in direct contrast to the Abstract Expressionist movement earlier in the century. Actions, forms and adjectives were broken down into terms, serially repeated and reconfigured: grids, lines, shapes, color, directions and starting points are several examples. These directives and constructs fueled an influential career of vast variety, subtlety and progression.

      View More Works

Works from the Archive of Edition Schellmann to benefit the Ars Publicata Project

32

A Pyramid, from Portfolio for Joseph Beuys (K. 1986.03)

1986
Screenprint in colours, on Arches paper, the full sheet.
S. 61 x 81.5 cm (24 x 32 1/8 in.)
Signed, numbered 1/1, and dedicated 'for Eva Beuys' in black ink, a proof aside from the edition of 90 in Arabic numerals and 30 artist's proofs in Roman numerals, co-published by Galerie Bernd Klüser, Munich, and Edition Schellmann, Munich and New York, unframed.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
£1,500 - 2,000 

Sold for £2,540

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Evening & Day Editions

London Auction 17 - 18 January 2024