Mark Grotjahn - Contemporary Art Evening Sale London Friday, October 12, 2007 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Blum & Poe, Los Angeles

  • Catalogue Essay

    Mark Grotjhan’s unique appreciation for colour and ability to create abstracted geometric figures are signature characteristics within the artist’s painterly oeuvre. In the present lot Untitled (White Butterfly), Grotjahn has delved back into the history of art to explore minimalist concepts familiar in the early white monochromes and colour explorations of Robert Ryman's works of the 1960s. Cubist elements, such as the jagged edges found in the woodcuts of the German Expressionists at the beginning of the 20th Century, are also evident in these striking geometric paintings.

    With its nearly monochromatic appearance, Untitled (White Butterfly) is distinctively expressive yet mysteriously compelling, despite Grotjahn’s use of subtle white and cream tones. Its visual effect creates a strikingly beautiful, and seductive visual experience for the viewer, absorbing one into its mesmerizing space. With its one point perspective, specifically positioned vantage points and spectacular colours, Grotjahn’s Untitled (White Butterfly)is a beautifully composed work of art entailing visual intensity and pictorial power. The work exudes a painterly finesse, sensibility and passion.

204

Untitled (White Butterfly)

2001
Oil on linen.
48 x 40 in. (122 x 102 cm).
Signed and dated "Mark Grotjahn 01" on the overlap.

Estimate
£100,000 - 150,000 

Sold for £264,000

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

Evening Sale
13 October 2007, 4pm
London