Provenance
Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago
Catalogue Essay
‘For me the undefined, in-between space is where it gets interesting.’ RASHID JOHNSON

Stemming out of Rashid Johnson’s on-going eponymous Cosmic Slop series, the present lot exemplifies the complexity of the artist’s gaze and association. Comprised of liquefied black soap and melted microcrystalline black wax layered on board, Johnson creates a uniquely lavish and tactile surface of undulating composition contained within the parameters of geometrical form. The effect is a work that appears at once malleable and concrete; a smooth opaque abyss-like plane giving way to topographical forms, traces of small incisions and dents picked-up by reflections of light. Indeed, Cosmic Slop, 2008, “resemble[s] the endless, star-pricked dark of the night sky” (Rashid Johnson: Shelter, Exh. cat., South London Gallery, 2012, p.13), a meditation on the irreducible concept of self-location.

Johnson’s Cosmic Slop paintings, which borrow their titles from a song by psychedelic soul band Parliament-Funkadelic, are explorations into the history of non-objective monochrome painting as much as they engage with everyday materials that hold a personal relationship to Afrocentrism. Engaging with the art historical lineage of Black Paintings by artists such as Clyfford Still, Frank Stella and Robert Rauschenberg as well as the domestic objects and music that informed aspects of Johnson’s identity, Cosmic Slop is an amalgamation of intersecting histories and interpretations; a sort of black mirror, where clarity and reflection are disrupted altogether. Staring at the composition of black soap and wax, “[t]he world of the looking glass is clouded over, or sealed off, and we’re left to contemplate Johnson’s tangled glyphs, and find in them some reflection of our own tangled hearts and minds.” (Ibid, p.14)

Commonly linked to the Post-Black art movement or Post-Black gaze, a genre that investigates race while problematizing a singular notion of black experience, Rashid Johnson’s work delves into issues of personal and cultural identity. The artist produces distinctive amalgams of historical and material references that are grounded in African-American culture and art history while expanding into the vast qualities of mysticism and cosmology. Cosmic Slop, 2008, elegantly communicates the power of the gaze, presenting the viewer with a contemplative space within an abstract field.

26

Rashid Johnson

Cosmic Slop

2008
black soap, microcrystalline wax on board
213.4 x 213.4 cm. (84 x 84 in.)
This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist.

Estimate
£60,000 - 80,000 ‡

Sold for £86,500

Contact Specialist
Peter Sumner
Head of Contemporary Art Department
psumner@phillips.com
+44 207 318 4063

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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Rob Pruitt
Chinese Buffet
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Kelley Walker
Untitled
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Tauba Auerbach
Untitled (Fold) XV
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Ugo Rondinone
No. 209 DREISSIGSTERJUNIZWEITAUSENDUNDNULL
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Ugo Rondinone
If There were Anywhere but Desert. Friday
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Cindy Sherman
Untitled #426
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Rudolf Stingel
Untitled (Bolego)
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Cindy Sherman
Untitled Film Still #36
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9
Glenn Brown
Oscillate Wildly (after ‘Autumnal Cannibalism’ 1936 by Salvador Dalí)
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Andy Warhol
Pontiac
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Anish Kapoor
Untitled
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12
Andy Warhol
Diamond Dust Shoes
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Andy Warhol
Skull
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Jean-Michel Basquiat
Three Pontificators
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Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (Three-Tiered Perspective)
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Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled
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Anish Kapoor
Turning the World Upside Down II
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Antony Gormley
SICK
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19
This lot is no longer available.
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Andy Warhol
Electric Chairs
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George Condo
Smiling Smoker
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Marcel Broodthaers
Abbildung
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Oscar Murillo
Untitled
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Sterling Ruby
Alabaster SR10-7
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Jacob Kassay
Untitled
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26
Rashid Johnson
Cosmic Slop
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ‡
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27
Marc Quinn
Separation of Body and Soul (Ultramarine)
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡♠
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Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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Provenance

Catalogue Essay

26

Rashid Johnson

Cosmic Slop

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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