Lisa Yuskavage - New Now New York Wednesday, September 26, 2018 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Greengrassi, London
    Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • Exhibited

    London, Greengrassi, Lisa Yuskavage, May 29 - June 26, 2004

  • Catalogue Essay

    Lisa Yuskavage paints extraordinarily feminine portraits that bring a fresh, contemporary perspective to figurative art, pushing the boundaries of objectification while also giving a voice to female sexuality. She does so by painting highly sexualized and fantastically positioned and proportioned women in various stages of undress, sexual excitement, and exhibition.

    Bridesmaid from 2004 excellently manifests these qualities of scandal, femininity and empathy. Her female protagonist lays almost entirely naked, aside from a remaining high-heeled shoe and a blue garter around her leg. Yuskavage's ability to illustrate alternate realities using forms and features which are understandable to the viewer is both mesmerizing and disorienting, a fact made all the more so by the masterful treatment of the paint and canvas itself. The singular form of the protagonist in such an ambiguous scene – the shoe is clearly too large, the garter likewise; the relative carefree demeanor being in opposition to the usual frenetic nature of a wedding – all serve to confound and engage the viewer. Utilizing her signature pastel tones, Yuskavage draws the viewer in for closer physical, and emotional, inspection.

    Yuskavage’s Bridesmaid embodies so much of what has established her as one of the pre-eminent figure painters of the 21st Century. There is a multitude of meaning and emotionality – empathy, misogyny, longing – that are inextricably linked between the imagery itself and the sensuality of the medium. “It is a belief that pictures can be formally coded and tell a story, and that viewers will understand that code even if they are not painters themselves … I like to think they will feel the power of the form, almost unconsciously, whether they want to or not.”

43

Bridesmaid

signed and dated "Lisa Yuskavage 2004" on the overlap; further signed with the artist's initials and dated "Ly 2004" on the reverse
oil on linen
30 x 34 in. (76.2 x 86.4 cm.)
Painted in 2004.

Estimate
$80,000 - 120,000 

Sold for $175,000

Contact Specialist
Sam Mansour
Associate Specialist, Head of New Now Sale
New York
+1 212 940 1219
smansour@phillips.com

New Now

New York Auction 26 September 2018