Mike Bidlo - Contemporary Art Part I New York Thursday, May 17, 2007 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zürich; Collection Asher B. Edelman, Switzerland

  • Exhibited

    Lausanne, FAE Musée d’Art Contemporain, Sélection: oeuvres de la collection, June 10 – October 13, 1991

  • Literature

    FAE Musée d’Art Contemporain, ed., Sélection: oeuvres de la collection, Paris, 1991, pp. 34-35 (illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay

    “I picked Pollock because he seemed to be a good place to start my attack on the New York art world. Pollock is one of the biggest myths in modern art; he’s an icon for all of us. He was the first American artist to become a centerfold in Life magazine. Pollock was the precursor of Andy Warhol’s working with the media to get across the concepts of art. [Bidlo, who has two master’s degrees, worked closely from the Pollock catalogue raisonne to create almost forty ersatz abstract expressionist works.] I feel now that I know, more than any art-history person in the world, what Pollock went through to paint that stuff. I am one of the foremost authorities on Pollock and his working procedures. The whole point is that I’m rejecting Mike Bidlo, myself. My original statement comes out in the form of the presentation, the timing, the place. Art is all about exploration and that, at present, is what interests me. I think my Pollock series is one of the most important statements about art in the 1980s… “Everything I do is for art. I love art, and it’s my whole life. I don’t want my work to be too easily understood. I create by recreating the work of another artist, by appropriating art that some people believe anyone can do. I didn’t go into the Pollock series thinking that I would metamorphose into the Pollock persona for a whole year. I didn’t know that would happen. I thought this was going to be one little thing. Then I went crazy and became obsessed.” (Mike Bidlo, quoted from A. Wagner, “The Artist Who Wanted to Be Jackson Pollock,” Art & Antiques, March, 1984, p. 17).

53

Lavender Mist

1983
Metallic and enamel paint on canvas.
84 x 112 in. (213.4 x 284.5 cm).
Signed, titled and dated “Mike Bidlo Lavender Mist, 1983” on the reverse.

Estimate
$80,000 - 120,000 

Sold for $420,000

Contemporary Art Part I

17 May 2007
7pm New York