Christopher Wool - Contemporary Art Part I New York Thursday, May 15, 2008 | Phillips

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  • Provenance


    Galerie Ghislaine Hussenot, Paris

  • Catalogue Essay


    "Wool’s works capture a generation’s temperament and the pulse of our present moment. While it certainly emerges from a tradition of painting, it is also utterly of the here and now, precisely because of its apparent doubt, conveyed through a continual compositional dissolution and re-materialization. His oeuvre is, in fact, a vehicle not only of statement but of emphatic self-qualification and the explicitly hindered gesture. What one sees in a Wool painting is not in any way a “pure” expression or direct manifestation of thought, but rather the demonstration of physical and intellectual labor that comes from an active contemplation as well as a hesitant belief in the continued viability of painting as a vehicle for honest expression."
    (M. Grynsztejn, “Unfinished Business,” Christopher Wool, Los Angeles, 1998, p. 265) 
    Christopher Wool’s paintings perpetually return to the basic elements of the medium: form, line, color, and composition. The pictorial space is restricted to the shallow depth of the canvas surface, a consequence of the stencil-edged, superimposed images reminiscent of industrial signage. Yet, these qualities are all inclusively relative; relying upon their relationship within the boundaries of the canvas, they frustrate the viewer’s desire for coherence and closure, while opening up boundless narratives amongst themselves. Christopher Wool’s talent for constructing an image is exemplified in the present lot, which highlights the artist’s insight into the intellectual depth of the canvas space.

103

Untitled (P273)

1997

Enamel on aluminum.

90 x 60 1/4 in. (228.5 x 153 cm).

Signed, titled, and dated “WOOL UNTITLED (P273) 1997” on the reverse.

Estimate
$400,000 - 600,000 

Sold for $577,000

Contemporary Art Part I

15 May 2008, 7pm
New York