Mark Tansey - Contemporary Art Part I New York Thursday, May 15, 2008 | Phillips

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  • Provenance


    Gallery Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris

  • Exhibited

    New York, Josh Baer Gallery, The Library, May 24 - June 29, 1991

  • Literature


    D. Blau, The Library, New York, 1991, n.p. (illustrated); A. Danto, Mark Tansey: Visions and Revisions, New York, 1992, p. 119 (illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay

    Mark Tansey’s predominately monochromatic canvases are concerned with the role of signs in modern communication. Heavily influenced by Structuralist thought,Tansey draws upon phrases by well-known philosophers to further explore the visual properties of language. In Reader, Tansey quotes the French post-modern thinker Derrida, who explained the world as a totality of meanings. “Tansey takes [the meaning of language], as the French expression goes, au pied de la lettre, and cleverly uses stenciled text, overprinted and made obscure, to create the textures of his landscapes,” (Danto, p. 28).
    Tansey avoids simple visual methods, opting instead for a more sophisticated, more subtle approach to constructing meaning from his subjects. The late 1980s, forTansey, was, “a period of deep preoccupation with the relationship between image and meaning, between perception and interpretation, a thorough process which ultimately led to the incorporation of letters of the alphabet,” (G.Werd, I. Dressler and H. Christ, Mark Tansey, Kleve, 2005, p. 7). Within the narrative character,Tansey retains photorealistic details, which create complex, conceptual arrangements that attempt to redefine the task of representation.

146

Reader

1990

Oil on canvas.

77 x 49 3/4 in. (195.6 x 126.4 cm).

Signed, titled, and dated “Tansey ‘READER’ 1990” on the reverse.

Estimate
$1,200,000 - 1,800,000 

Contemporary Art Part I

15 May 2008, 7pm
New York