Provenance
Salvatore Ala Gallery, New York
Exhibited
New York, Salvatore Ala Gallery, Antony Gormley, 15 April - 31 May 1989
Dublin, Irish Museum of Modern Art, The Weltkunst Collection, 18 May - 5October 1995
Dublin, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Figuration, 1996
Dublin, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Self as Selves, 17 June - 16 November 2008
Literature
Anthony Gormley, ed. Michael Mack, Steidlmack, Gottingen, 2007, p. 509
Breaking the Mould: British Art of the 1980’s and 1990’s, exh. cat., The Weltkunst Collection, Irish Museum of Modern Art, London, 1997, p. 44
Fergus Byrne, Christina Kennedy, Fiona Hallinan and Caoimhin O Raghallaigh, Self as Selves, Irish Museum of Modern Art, 2008
Catalogue Essay
Executed in 1989, SICK is a paradigmatic example of Antony Gormley’s lead sculptures created in the 1980’s that anticipated his subsequent materializations of the human form that would be cast in iron. The present lot is a prime example of Gormley’s attempt to ponder the role of the human within the universe, freezing a specific moment in time within lead, fibreglass, and plaster. Moulded from the artist’s own body, the sculpture is able to connect with the spectator on a personal level, displayed on a scale which the viewer immediately identifies with. The form of the human body acts as a catalyst for contemplation, addressing the universal question of existentialism: “I want to confront existence…The optical and the conceptual have dominated in the art of the twentieth century and I turn to the body in an attempt to find a language that will transcend the limitations of race, creed and language, but which will be about the rootedness of identity”, (A. Gormley, quoted in Antony Gormley, Exh. cat., Tate Liverpool, 1993, p. .49).

Part of a series of suspended and gravity works, the present lot reflects Gormley’s interest in using his art as a lever to destabilize the viewer’s notions of his or her position in space: “the whole idea is about disorientation, to make you feel less certain about the narrative that has brought you to the place where you confront the work...the way it is fixed on the wall is very important in that the head is where the head would be were it standing, but it doesn’t stand…it stands on the wall as it were”, (A. Gormley, quoted in Breaking the Mould: British Art of the1980’s and 1990’s, exh. cat., The Weltkunst Collection, Irish Museum of Modern Art, p. 44).

The sculpture hovers about a foot above the floor, resembling a figure in the middle of prayer, with its arms to the sides and kneeling legs connected to the wall by its feet. Despite the religious connotations of the work, the concrete rigidity and sombre positioning of the head suggest queasiness, with a disorientation emerging from the figures inconceivable resistance to natural laws of gravity as it surveys over the vacant space: “The work has an effect on your feeling about the stability of the room. The position of the figure is one of pleading or supplication, associated with the Christian tradition that has framed Western societal development…Like a lot of the works from around that period that stand on the wall, it inserted itself into the architecture on its own terms” (Ibid., p. 44).

According to Gormley, there is a direct correlation between SICK and SEEDS, which were both executed and displayed simultaneously at the Salvatore Ala Gallery in New York. In SICK, Gormley refers to a state of being that he finds prevalent in contemporary society, which coexists with the violence implied with his other work, SEEDS. The spiritual nature behind Gormley’s work is hypnotizing, bringing the spectator into a state of refection and meditation with an intrinsic anthropomorphic urgency. “Making sculpture stems from a need to leave a trace of existence, but there is an even greater need to challenge existence itself with mute objects that look back at us and question our materiality with their own” (A. Gormley, quoted in Antony Gormley, Steidlmack, Gottingen, 2007, p. 9).

18

Antony Gormley

SICK

1987 - 1989
lead, fibreglass, plaster, air
192 x 51 x 77 cm. (75 5/8 x 20 1/8 x 30 3/8 in.)

Estimate
£150,000 - 200,000 ♠

Sold for £194,500

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

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

London 27 June 2013 7pm

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Rob Pruitt
Chinese Buffet
Estimate £30,000 - 50,000 ‡
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Kelley Walker
Untitled
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 †
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3
Tauba Auerbach
Untitled (Fold) XV
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
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4
Ugo Rondinone
No. 209 DREISSIGSTERJUNIZWEITAUSENDUNDNULL
Estimate £70,000 - 90,000 ‡
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Ugo Rondinone
If There were Anywhere but Desert. Friday
Estimate £350,000 - 500,000 ‡
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6
Cindy Sherman
Untitled #426
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7
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled (Bolego)
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡♠
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8
Cindy Sherman
Untitled Film Still #36
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ‡
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9
Glenn Brown
Oscillate Wildly (after ‘Autumnal Cannibalism’ 1936 by Salvador Dalí)
Estimate £2,500,000 - 3,500,000 ‡♠
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10
Andy Warhol
Pontiac
Estimate £1,500,000 - 2,500,000 ‡
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11
Anish Kapoor
Untitled
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12
Andy Warhol
Diamond Dust Shoes
Estimate £900,000 - 1,200,000 ‡
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13
Andy Warhol
Skull
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡
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14
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Three Pontificators
Estimate £2,500,000 - 4,500,000 ‡
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15
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (Three-Tiered Perspective)
Estimate £140,000 - 180,000 ‡
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16
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000
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17
Anish Kapoor
Turning the World Upside Down II
Estimate £120,000 - 180,000 ♠
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18
Antony Gormley
SICK
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 ♠
Sold for £194,500
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19
This lot is no longer available.
20
Andy Warhol
Electric Chairs
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000
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21
George Condo
Smiling Smoker
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22
Marcel Broodthaers
Abbildung
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ♠
Sold for £218,500
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23
Oscar Murillo
Untitled
Estimate £20,000 - 30,000 ♠†
Sold for £146,500
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24
Sterling Ruby
Alabaster SR10-7
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000
Sold for £110,500
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25
Jacob Kassay
Untitled
Estimate £70,000 - 90,000 ‡
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26
Rashid Johnson
Cosmic Slop
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ‡
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27
Marc Quinn
Separation of Body and Soul (Ultramarine)
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡♠
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Contemporary Art Evening Sale

London 27 June 2013 7pm

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Provenance

Exhibited

Literature

Catalogue Essay

18

Antony Gormley

SICK

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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