Anselm Kiefer - Contemporary Art Day Sale London Sunday, June 29, 2008 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Private collection, Germany

  • Catalogue Essay

    Laokoon or Laocoön was a Trojan priest in classic mythology who warned his fellow Trojans against a wooden horse presented to the city of Troy by the Greeks during the time of the Trojan War. In the Aenid, a Latin epic poem, Laocoön is quoted as saying "Do not trust the Horse, Trojans / whatever it is, I fear the Greeks are even bearing gifts." The consequence that came to Troy after opening its city door to the giant Trojan horse was an ambush by Greek soldiers who stormed the compound upon entering while hidden inside the surprise gift, drawing an end to the war and victory to the Greeks.In his Laocoön photo collage, Kiefer has combined the photograph of a filigree roof construction with the jet plane, a motif often encountered in his œuvre. Here he has strongly worked over the jet with acrylic resin paint, thus emphasizing it in visual terms. "In many of his works Kiefer alludes to myths or historic events that reveal the proximity of intellectual and artistic potency to naked violence. In both he recognizes the operation of primal elements and archaic forces. Through them the artist becomes a genius all over again, as the expression of savage nature interpreted: unpredictable, volcanic, indifferent to whatever order prevails, he produces his creative work." (Wolfgang Ullrich, A. K. Nero quoted in Harenberg – Museum der Malerei, Dortmund 1999, p. 1106).

389

Laokoon

1989
Acrylic on gelatin silver print mounted to wooden support.
101 x 110 cm. (39 3/4 x 43 1/4 in).
Titled 'Laokoon' on the upper edge of the wooden support; signed and dated 'Anselm Kiefer 89' on the reverse.

Estimate
£70,000 - 90,000 

Sold for £85,250

Contemporary Art Day Sale

30 June 2008, 10am & 2pm
London