Carol Bove - Contemporary Art Evening Sale New York Thursday, May 15, 2014 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    KIMMERICH, New York

  • Exhibited

    New York, KIMMERICH, Carol Bove, March 5 - May 1, 2010

  • Catalogue Essay

    "I have a sense of history being contained by objects."

    CAROL BOVE, 2007

    Carol Bove is internationally renowned for her installations composed of artifacts such as books, gold chain, metal and concrete that reflect upon the social history of the 1960s and 1970s. By carefully collecting and re-contextualizing disparate objects, Bove directly confronts the implications of environment upon an object and the creation of the historical myth. Through her collection of objects, Bove researches the evolution of aesthetics by reframing the objects, often on a modernist wooden wall shelf. In the present lot, rows of peacock feathers have been meticulously applied to a linen surface. Bove explains, “The peacock feathers—I feel like they have all these different points in history where they have a certain moment of interest and I think about classical mythology—they’re the eye of Hera. In the Metamorphoses there’s this beautiful story about Io and Jove… In Symbolism, late-nineteenth century, there’s this re-interest in peacock feathers, and in Surrealism they have this understanding of the eye quality. And then in 1966 there’s a big exhibition of Aubrey Beardsley’s work in London and there’s sort of a fashion for him and he’s crazy for peacock feathers… then at the same time, in men’s fashion there’s the Peacock Revolution; men’s fashion got exciting all of a sudden in 1966 and they called it the Peacock Revolution…But then, personally, my grandmother really loved green and blue and she loved peacock feathers. Her whole fashion sense and her sense of culture was really related to classicism and classical culture, but then she was always striving to be modern. But she was so backwards-looking that she was never engaged in a legitimate avant-garde—but she was always striving. And peacock feathers were always arranged in her house in a way for me that was emblematic of her forwards/backwards sense of culture. She died recently and so after she died, I became very attracted to peacock feathers.” (Carol Bove, 2006) This luxurious piece encompasses the historical and personal significance of the peacock feather for Bove while simultaneously exploring the urban and social circumstances in which different materials appear and disappear from popular culture.

42

Untitled

2009
peacock feathers on linen, laid on board in Plexiglas frame
38 7/8 x 24 3/4 x 5 1/8 in. (99 x 63 x 13 cm.)

Estimate
$100,000 - 150,000 

Sold for $137,000

Contact Specialist
Zach Miner
Head of Sale
zminer@phillips.com
+1 212 940 1256

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

New York Auction 15 May 2014 7PM