Urs Fischer - Contemporary Art Evening Sale London Tuesday, October 13, 2015 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Sadie Coles HQ, London
    Private collection, New York
    Gagosian Gallery, New York
    Private Collection
    Christie's, New York, Post-War and Contemporary Evening Sale, 12 November, 2013, lot 9
    Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

  • Exhibited

    London, Sadie Coles HQ, Douglas Sirk, October-December 2010 (another example exhibited)

  • Literature

    Urs Fischer, exh. cat., Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art, 2013, p. 145 (another example illustrated, in colour)

  • Catalogue Essay

    "In most cases, I don’t even think about the object, I think about a situation..." (Urs Fischer, quoted in Urs Fischer: Shovel in a Hole, New York, 2009, p. 63).

    All of the objects Urs Fischer illustrates in his works of art are recognisable as being facets of the everyday, the mundane, and often the disposable and the inexpensive. They are items that litter our streets, populate supermarket shelves, inhabit office buildings and infiltrate our peripheral vision without leaving a resounding impression. Fischer, however, brings our attention to the dialogue created from their presence.

    Horse Fraud (2010) is formed of four large rectangular boxes whose sides are printed with photographs of objects seen from various angles therefore each face of a box corresponds with the alternating view of the object portrayed. Thus, a chair is seen from the front, back and sides on one of these boxes. In a manner that nods towards a Cubist visual language, Fischer’s technique allows several angles to be visible at the same time. Facing the corner of one of these sculptures, two view-points are accessible and, as a consequence, the everyday objects portrayed here are imbued with a surreal quality, only heightened by the warped scale of the assemblage. A giant cigarette packet sits beside an equally large office chair. Through their grouping we are made aware of their unrealistic sizes. Concurrently, the iridescent polished surfaces of the chair and torn cigarette packet appear too lustrous given their purpose. The sheen, emphasised through saturated colours, contributes to the appeal and detaches these objects from their transient roles as insignificant items to be used and discarded.

    In this manner Fischer aligns himself artistically with the creative experimentations of Pop Art, Dadaism and Surrealism alike. Ideas explored by Claes Oldenburg’s soft sculptures from the 1960s can also be found in Fischer’s three-dimensional works that similarly bring to mind Jasper Johns’ bronze reproductions of mundane objects such as beer cans. Infusing his subjects with the status of 'high art' through the use of techniques that hark back to Andy Warhol's silkscreens and Donald Judd's mirrored boxes, Fischer creates an environment where the viewer is forced to re-evaluate familiar snapshots from the world around them in a playful yet thought-provoking manner.

25

Horse Fraud

2010
Silkscreen print on mirror-polished stainless steel sheets, polyurethane foam sheets, two-component polyurethane adhesive, stainless steel beams, aluminium L sections, screws
Marlboro: 127.5 x 60.4 x 75 cm (50 1/4 x 23 3/4 x 29 1/2 in.)
Office Chair: 135 x 81 x 88 cm (53 1/8 x 31 7/8 x 34 5/8 in.)

This work is number 2 from an edition of 2 plus 1 artist's proof.

Estimate
£400,000 - 600,000 

Sold for £362,500

Contact Specialist
Peter Sumner
Head of Contemporary Art, London
psumner@phillips.com
+44 207 318 4063

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

London 14 October 2015 7pm