Provenance
Gagosian Gallery, New York
Catalogue Essay
I started working with gum because it was just on those rock sculptures; it was like another piece of evidence that someone was here…similar to the marks on a skate ramp, those are the proof that the skateboarders were there...The paintings came out of those.
DAN COLEN

(Dan Colen, in H. Beate Ueland and G. Årbu, “Dan Colen Interview”, Astrup Fearnley Museum, video, October 2010).

Comprised of chewing gum on canvas, the present lot, S&M, 2010, encapsulates the ingenious playfulness and unabashed rebellious nature of Dan Colen’s artistic practice. Resonating with cool self-awareness, Colen investigates notions of randomness and accidental gestures through a multimedia approach. The original process of Colen’s chewing gum works proved painstakingly slow, recruiting friends and studio assistants to chew pieces of gum before applying the individual pieces to canvas. The artist quickly revised this method in favor of producing larger pieces of gum that could be readily spread over a surface. S&M, 2010, is exemplary of Colen’s innovation, conveying a striking lightness; a colorful field of warm and cool colors blissfully performing, each piece encountering the next in a series of unique and spontaneous gestures.

S&M, 2010, evokes powerful references to the artistic heritage of New York painters; Abstract Expressionism, Pop art, and Neo-Expressionism. Here however, the sweeping, sumptuous, palate of colors that cover the canvas deliver an unexpected sent of saccharine tropical fruit rather than a scent of oil varnish. In this way, S&M, 2010, can be interpreted as deflating the monumentality of canonical artworks. In the same way that artists are often contextualized within art movements, Dan Colen opts to explore cliques, adolescence, delinquency, and the clash of subcultures; resulting in the conflating of high and low. The gesture of applying a piece of gum to a canvas as opposed to an accumulation of gum stuck under a desk.
Artist Biography
Dan Colen
American • 1979
American artist Dan Colen has spent most of his career asking himself questions about the editorial decisions artists have to make when creating a scene from scratch on canvas. In his early work, Colen painted mundane interiors punctuated with fantastical elements. This manifested as part of a growing curiosity in the ethereal or divine intervention.
Colen subsequently stepped away from paint as material and started using found objects as mediums with which to paint. Among these, Colen has used chewing gum, street trash, confetti, feathers, flowers and dirt. This methodology allows Colen to abandon control and create in a more free-form, subconscious manner.
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6

Dan Colen

S & M

2010
chewing gum on canvas
72 x 48 in. (182.9 x 121.9 cm)
This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.

Estimate
$200,000 - 300,000

Sold for $578,500

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

15 November 2012
New York

1
Tauba Auerbach
Untitled (Fold)
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $290,500
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2
Rashid Johnson
Fly
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $182,500
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3
Sterling Ruby
SP 17
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $626,500
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4
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (Cream Butterfly Thin Black Lines # 673)
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $734,500
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5
Andy Warhol
Apple (From Ads set A)
Estimate $450,000 - 650,000
Sold for $482,500
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6
Dan Colen
S & M
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $578,500
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7
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Self-Portrait
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $4,058,500
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8
Gerhard Richter
Kegel (Cone)
Estimate $12,000,000 - 18,000,000
Sold for $12,402,500
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9
Georg Baselitz
Elke
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $1,650,500
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10
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Humidity
Estimate $12,000,000 - 18,000,000
Sold for $10,162,500
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11
Ed Ruscha
99% Angel, 1% Devil
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,022,500
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12
Andy Warhol
Mao
Estimate $12,000,000 - 18,000,000
Sold for $13,522,500
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13
Alexander Calder
The Whiffletree
Estimate $3,500,000 - 5,500,000
Sold for $4,002,500
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14
This lot is no longer available.
15
Steven Parrino
Jerk Left, Jerk Right
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $722,500
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16
Cady Noland
Clip on Method
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $1,762,500
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17
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,314,500
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18
Andy Warhol
Nine Jackies
Estimate $10,000,000 - 15,000,000
Sold for $12,402,500
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19
Joan Mitchell
The Lake
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $1,762,500
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20
Alexander Calder
Model for Rosenhof
Estimate $3,000,000 - 4,000,000
Sold for $3,218,500
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21
This lot is no longer available.
22
Christopher Wool
Untitled
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,202,500
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23
John Baldessari
A Movie: Directional Piece Where People Are Walking (Version A)
Estimate $350,000 - 450,000
Sold for $422,500
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24
Donald Judd
Untitled 90-9 Donaldson
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $1,082,500
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25
Anselm Kiefer
Selbstportrait
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $542,500
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26
Zhang Huan
Ash Skull No. 6
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
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27
Arshile Gorky
Study for Agony
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
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28
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Radium 23
Estimate $3,000,000 - 5,000,000
Sold for $3,666,500
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29
John Chamberlain
Ivory Joe
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $542,500
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30
Sturtevant
Johns White Numbers
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $362,500
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31
Cindy Sherman
Untitled Film Still #53
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $314,500
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32
John Baldessari
The Overlap Series: Street Scene and Reclining Person (with Shoes)
Estimate $350,000 - 550,000
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33
Anselm Reyle
Life Enigma
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
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34
Cindy Sherman
Untitled #467
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
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35
Richard Prince
Untitled
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $662,500
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36
Rosemarie Trockel
Untitled
Estimate $150,000 - 250,000
Sold for $206,500
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37
Yoshitomo Nara
In the Pinky Lake
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
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Contemporary Art Evening Sale

15 November 2012 New York

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Provenance

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

Dan Colen

6

Dan Colen

S & M

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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15 November 2012
New York