Oscar Murillo - Contemporary Art Day Sale New York Friday, November 14, 2014 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Carlos Ishikawa, London

  • Exhibited

    London, Saatchi Gallery, Pangaea: New Art from Africa and Latin America, April 2 - November 2, 2014

  • Literature

    Pangaea: New Art from Africa and Latin America, exh. cat., Saatchi Gallery, London, 2014, p. 119 (illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay

    "The individual canvases are very much the DNA; they record that movement, the process of making."
    Oscar Murillo, 2013

    In Oscar Murillo’s practice, concepts of distance, displacement, and movement play a monumental role. He explores the themes of movement and change in location as well as physical activity in his work, which becomes a mixture of both the artist’s incisive inquiry into the geographies of space and a manifestation of his body in transit. His work is also defined by questions surrounding studio practice. In fact, it is a collaboration of the artist’s creative body and his creative environment, which merge into a variety of textures and layers. Before the work is elevated into the realm of fine art, he likes to expose every element of it to the real world. Always made on the floor of his studio, “a cradle of dust, dirt and pollution,” Murillo leaves his paintings lying for several months to wear them off and let them gather “DNA information.”

    The present lot, Untitled, from 2011 certainly appears to layer the numerous activities that he performs in his studio. It combines oil paint, oil stick and graphite to result in a kaleidoscope of cobalt blues, urgently tangled, both expressive and aggressive but harmonious and beautiful. Whisks of various tones of blue are mixed to lines of grey and black to form a spontaneous and intuitive composition, relating to themes of distance, displacement, and movement. Left on the floor of his studio, dirt, dust and debris, more than just widely available materials, become as much component materials as oil paint, pastel or graphite. This process of democratization also adds an archival element to his production. By ignoring the formal ideas of painting but intensively processing materials, Murillo unwraps a consciously composed wildness based on things that make life and art.

142

Untitled

2011
oil, oil stick, graphite, dirt on canvas
82 5/8 x 66 7/8 in. (210 x 170 cm)

Estimate
$200,000 - 300,000 

Sold for $377,000

Contact Specialist
Kate Bryan
Head of Day Sale
New York
+ 1 212 940 1267

Contemporary Art Day Sale

New York Auction 14 November 2014 11am