Ugo Rondinone’s MOONRISE. west. may, 2004, constitutes one component of the artist’s 12-part series in which each work is named after a month of the year. Since 2002 Rondinone has produced several bodies of work centered around the mask motif. For MOONRISE, Rondinone draws inspiration from the ceremonial masks of the Yupik, a group of Indigenous peoples native to Alaska and the Far East of Russia.i Rendered in several distinct mediums, including aluminum, bronze and as in the present example, rubber, these works are all derived from preliminary iterations sculpted out of clay. The subsequent casting process transfers the tactile reminders of the artist’s working method onto the rubber renditions. The fingerprints and nail marks found throughout the work exhibit the diligent process Rondinone undertook to complete these series, with each ripple among the undulating surface echoing a swipe of the finger.
In the eyes of Madeleine Schuppli, former director of the Aargauer Kunsthaus, these marks that imbue the work with Rondinone’s “personal touch,” function as a stylized relief, simultaneously shifting the objects towards abstraction while distancing them from their spiritual and ritualistic inspirations.ii While MOONRISE works inherit the aura of ceremonial importance through formal emulation, their simplified aesthetic and forlorn mood emanate an appeal for introspection that permeates Rondinone’s oeuvre. This meditative undertone is further reinforced by the naming convention of the series, which grounds the works within a temporal cycle, prompting viewers to consider the masks as unique phases of a singular entity.
MOONRISE and its counterpart SUNRISE, in which the same mask forms are composed of cast aluminum, represent two major bodies of work within Rondinone’s intricate catalogue. Large scale renditions of the works have been exhibited at institutions across the globe, including the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, the Aspen Art Museum, Pt. Leo Estate, Victoria, Australia and the sculpture plaza at 555 Mission Street in San Francisco. One of the foremost sculptors in contemporary art, Rondinone’s work can be found in the permanent collections of the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
i Madeleine Schuppli, Ugo Rondinone: The Night of Lead, Zurich, 2010, p. 331
ii Ibid.
Provenance
Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2004Exhibited
New York, Matthew Marks Gallery, Ugo Rondinone: Long Gone Sole, September 18–October 30, 2004
London, Whitechapel Gallery, Ugo Rondinone: zero built a nest in my navel, January 24–March 26, 2006, pp. 245, 256 (another example exhibited and illustrated, p. 256; Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, 2004 installation view illustrated, p. 245)
Aarau, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Ugo Rondinone: The Night of Lead, May 13–August 1, 2010, pp. 165, 331, 352 (another example exhibited and illustrated, p. 165; installation view illustrated, p. 352)Literature
Laura Hoptman, et al., Ugo Rondinone (Contemporary Artists Series), London, 2022, pp. 38, 41, 158 (another example illustrated, p. 41)
23
MOONRISE. west. may
cast polyurethane
40 1/8 x 23 5/8 x 10 5/8 in. (101.9 x 60 x 27 cm)
Executed in 2004, this work is number 1 from an edition of 3 plus 2 artist's proofs.
Estimate
$40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $57,150
Katerina Blackwood
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Modern & Contemporary Art
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Modern & Contemporary Art: Online Auction, New York
26 February - 11 March 2025
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