Provenance

Galerie Ghislaine Hussenot, Paris
Catalogue Essay

Carroll Dunham’s graphic, semi-figurative paintings are instantly recognizable in their unsettling mixture of cheeky cartoon-like characters and chromatic, vivid color. His work is an explosion of psycho-sexual imagery and is saturated with aggressive energy. Dunham synthesizes various schools of paintings, borrowing from Cubism, Abstract Expressionism, and Pop to create amorphous shapes that evolve into figures suddenly grotesque and hyper sexualized. As you peel away the layers of the canvas, a deeper sense of consciousness is revealed, and one becomes very self aware as various psycho-sexual drives penetrate the surface from below. In the 1990s, his work began to morph organic forms with human characteristics, a child-like hand, or a protruding nose suddenly appeared on the canvas before disappearing into its neighboring form. The paint melts into strange shapes of body parts, one finds oneself disoriented and questioning what is figure and what is background, whether it is male or female.
As included in the present lot, Another Island, 1989-99, the phallusnosed character is the most well-known of Dunham’s forms. He is a wanderer through mountains of trash, a sailor peering through the landscape of dirt and waste. We don’t know whether he is lost or doomed, or simply without purpose or end. His company on this journey, the second figure, is strange and unsettling, rounded shapes penetrate the silhouette and we suddenly recognize hints of luscious lips, a supple breast, and chattering teeth. She is partially submerged in water, wading her way along their journey, while he floats in his make-shift boat and peers into the distance. They are perhaps the actors on the stage of sexual conflict amidst warfare or disaster. “Driven equally by rage, anxiety and hilarity, his paintings deliver an uncommonly potent combination of formal punch, narrative intrigue and metaphorical resonance” (Ken Johnson, “Suggestive Forms that Come out of the Plywoodwork,” New York Times, March 25, 2008).
Artist Biography
Carroll Dunham
American • 1949
Satire and sexuality meet Carroll Dunham's vivid brush in the artist's often large-scale fantasy worlds. His eye-popping cartoonish veneer takes a cue from Philip Guston while his primitive "visual language" of faceless figures continues a long line of tradition—think back to Paul Cézanne and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
Though Dunham jumps between abstraction, figuration, pop, surrealism and cartoon, his works almost exclusively center on the subject of women's sexuality. He also favors painting, though he has delved into prints, works-on-paper and sculpture. His paintings can be seen as contemporary variations on nineteenth-century portraiture of women bathing, injected with similar concerns of those classical and early modernist artists.
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40

Carroll Dunham

Another Island

1989-1999

Acrylic, enamel, pastel and pencil on linen.
60 x 77 in. (152.4 x 195.6 cm).

Signed “Carroll Dunham” center top; dated “1998 1999” upper right; signed, titled and dated “Carroll Dunham ‘Another Island’ 1998-99” on the stretcher.

Estimate
$80,000 - 120,000

Sold for $104,500

Contemporary Art Part I

12 Nov 2009
New York

1
Kelley Walker and Wade Guyton
Untitled (from the series Guyton \ Walker: Empire Strikes Back)
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $74,500
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2
Dash Snow
Polaroid Wall
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $50,000
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3
Mark Handforth
American Tristar
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
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4
Robert Longo
Untitled (Damien)
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
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5
Olafur Eliasson
1m³ light
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $362,500
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6
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
"Untitled"
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $542,500
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7
Jeff Koons
Ice Bucket
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $230,500
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8
Richard Prince
Untitled (four women with their backs to the camera)
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
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9
Yayoi Kusama
Infinity Nets (T.W.A.)
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $842,500
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10
Gilbert & George
Spell of Sweating
Estimate $180,000 - 250,000
Sold for $206,500
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11
Larry Bell
Untitled
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
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12
Richard Artschwager
Untitled
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $338,500
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13
This lot is no longer available.
14
Ed Ruscha
Mean As Hell
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $590,500
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15
John McCracken
Speak
Estimate $90,000 - 120,000
Sold for $110,500
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16
Andy Warhol
Brillo Soap Pads Box
Estimate $700,000 - 900,000
Sold for $842,500
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17
Ed Ruscha
Atlas
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $86,500
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18
Andy Warhol
Diamond Dust Shoes
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $506,500
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19
James Rosenquist
Wild West World
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $242,500
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20
Tim Noble and Sue Webster
Puny Undernourished Kid & Girlfriend From Hell
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
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21
This lot is no longer available.
22
Anselm Reyle
Sonnenuntergang am Genfer See (Sunset on Lake Geneva)
Estimate $80,000 - 100,000
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23
Keith Tyson
Nature Painting
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $60,000
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24
Olafur Eliasson
Moonlight
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $110,500
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25
Jack Goldstein
Untitled
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $104,500
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26
Yoshitomo Nara
Black Hole Cosmic Heads
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $134,500
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27
George Condo
Mental States (Hiding and Finding)
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $290,500
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28
Banksy
Insane Clown
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $386,500
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29
Albert Oehlen
Untitled
Estimate $150,000 - 250,000
Sold for $194,500
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30
Sherrie Levine
Untitled (Lead Knots: 7)
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $134,500
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31
Tony Cragg
Paysage avec Lac (Landscape with Lake)
Estimate $90,000 - 120,000
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32
Fred Sandback
Untitled (Leaning Vertical Construction)
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
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33
Dan Walsh
Untitled
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $37,500
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34
Kara Walker
The Humane Acquisition of Chitlins
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $86,500
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35
Katja Strunz
Untitled
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $27,500
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36
This lot is no longer available.
37
David LaChapelle
Leonardo DiCaprio: Nostalgic Styling
Estimate $25,000 - 35,000
Sold for $31,250
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38
Tracey Emin
Her soft lips touched mine and every thing became hard
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $86,500
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39
Jules de Balincourt
Ambitious New Plans
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $116,500
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40
Carroll Dunham
Another Island
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $104,500
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41
Hernan Bas
The Lonely Martian
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $98,500
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42
Feng Zhengjie
China 2005 No. 11
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $68,500
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Contemporary Art Part I

12 Nov 2009 New York

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Provenance

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

Carroll Dunham

40

Carroll Dunham

Another Island

Contemporary Art Part I

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12 Nov 2009
New York