Provenance
Private Collection, Italy
Catalogue Essay
“Each abstraction is a collapsing of an image. There is the disappearance of an image, its death, and finally the image’s sublimation.” FRANCESCO BONAMI

Rudolf Stingel’s abstract works have often been described as an attempt to close the gap between figuration and abstraction that Gerhard Richter left. “Richter’s abstractions are figurative paintings that have exceeded their time. While the blur that goes across and through them appears to make them abstract, the blur works to overcome the limits of history, swiping across it, across reality and banality, exhausting all of the painting’s narrative time to become a part of memory or dreams. From
his figurative painting we can see a way toward abstraction, but the other way around appears impossible […] Each abstraction is a collapsing of an image. There is the disappearance of an image, its death, and finally the image’s sublimation” (F. Bonami, ‘Paintings of Paintings for Paintings – The Kairology and Kronology of Rudolf Stingel’, in Rudolf Stingel, exh. cat., London, 2007, pp.13–14).

According to Bonomi, it is the concept of time that defines abstraction and figuration and it is Stingel who attempts to overcome these temporal limitations in order to grasp the space between the two. This has been described as a balancing act between the specific moment in which everything is contained, which the viewer perceives as the present and which leads to figuration and the eternal time which gives way to abstraction, in which temporal development has been frozen and mortality is superfluous in an endless cycle of nonexistence. Figuration is defined by images and the deferral of mortality as otherwise there would be no existence. It is based on the consumption of time while that same concept poses the biggest threat to abstraction. “His abstractions and portraits look into each other, forward and backward. Stingel creates a transitive way to recede from abstraction into the subject and to push the subject into a different kind of time. While Richter’s blur is an anticipation of a forthcoming, more radical disappearance of the subject, Stingel’s impression left by the pattern of the fabric […] are the same as the impression left by the subject on the canvas” (ibid.).

The current lot is a beautiful and rare example of an early work on paper laid on canvas from 1984. The vivid, expressive and powerful brushstrokes and beautiful hues of blues and greens remind the viewer of the voluptuous intensity, energy and drama of the Baroque that Stingel was exposed to during his childhood in Austria and the Tyrol, but also reference the limitlessness and boundlessness of the ‘all-over’ paintings of artists such as Jackson Pollock. Stingel’s genius lies in the exploration of the limits of painting, of ownership and hierarchy which are at the very core of his oeuvre and in the dedication of abundant attention to colour and surface, freeing painting from the confining concept of mere representation. And Untitled from 1984 is an important early testimony to that.
Artist Biography
Rudolf Stingel
Italian • 1956
Rudolf Stingel came to prominence in the late 1980s for his insistence on the conceptual act of painting in a context in which it had been famously declared dead. Despite the prevailing minimalist and conceptual narrative of the time, the Italian-born artist sought to confront the fundamental aspirations and failures of Modernist painting through the very medium of painting itself. While his works do not always conform to the traditional definitions of painting, their attention to surface, space, color and image provide new and expanded ways of thinking about the process and "idea" of painting. Central to his multifarious and prolific oeuvre is an examination of the passage of time and the probing of the fundamental questions of authenticity, meaning, hierarchy, authorship and context by dislocating painting both internally and in time and space. Stingel is best known for his wall-to-wall installations, constructed of fabric or malleable Celotex sheets, as well as his seemingly more traditional oil-on-canvas paintings.
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36

Rudolf Stingel

Untitled

1984
acrylic on paper laid on canvas
206 x 298 cm (81 1/8 x 117 3/8 in)

Estimate
£200,000 - 300,000 ‡♠

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

10 October 2012
London

1
Wolfgang Tillmans
Freischwimmer #84
Estimate £30,000 - 50,000 ‡♠
Sold for £39,650
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2
Dan Colen
Happy Accidents, Happy Endings
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡
Sold for £145,250
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3
Adam McEwen
Dessau
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ‡♠
Sold for £121,250
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4
Rob Pruitt
Baby
Estimate £80,000 - 120,000 ‡
Sold for £97,250
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5
Jacob Kassay
Untitled
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ‡
Sold for £181,250
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6
Wade Guyton
Untitled
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 †
Sold for £169,250
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7
Christopher Wool
Untitled
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
Sold for £361,250
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8
John Baldessari
Strobe Series/Futurist: Dog on Leash (for Balla)
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
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9
Robert Longo
Untitled (Long Tou)
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000 ‡
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10
Sean Scully
Homo Duplex
Estimate £500,000 - 700,000 ‡♠
Sold for £601,250
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11
Louise Bourgeois
Nature Study
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000
Sold for £713,250
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12
Andy Warhol
Watches
Estimate £1,000,000 - 2,000,000 ‡
Sold for £1,004,450
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13
Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol
GE Short Line & Reading
Estimate £1,200,000 - 1,800,000 ‡
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14
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Big Joy
Estimate £2,500,000 - 3,500,000 ‡
Sold for £2,617,250
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15
This lot is no longer available.
16
Andy Warhol
Mao Portfolio (set of 10)
Estimate £500,000 - 700,000 ‡
Sold for £577,250
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17
Richard Prince
Untitled (Girlfriend)
Estimate £220,000 - 280,000 ‡
Sold for £223,250
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18
George Condo
Daphnée
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡
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19
Damien Hirst
Sad Steps – Life Fulfilled
Estimate £500,000 - 700,000 ‡♠
Sold for £601,250
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20
Andreas Gursky
Rimini
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ‡♠
Sold for £421,250
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21
Gerhard Richter
Abstraktes Bild
Estimate £2,500,000 - 3,500,000 ‡♠
Sold for £2,449,250
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22
Anselm Kiefer
Dein Haus ritt die finstere Welle
Estimate £500,000 - 700,000 ♠
Sold for £577,250
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23
Miquel Barceló
Sinonimies
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ♠
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24
Richard Prince
Mumbai after Dark
Estimate £300,000 - 500,000 ‡
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25
Enoc Pérez
Darlington Hotel, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico,
Estimate £140,000 - 180,000 ‡
Sold for £145,250
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26
Andreas Gursky
Hong Kong Stock Exchange (diptych)
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ‡♠
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27
Robert Indiana
LOVE (Red faces Blue sides),
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡
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28
Ugo Rondinone
DRITTERAPRILZWEITAUSENDUNDSIEBEN
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ‡
Sold for £289,250
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29
Raqib Shaw
Death, Beauty & Justice
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000 ‡
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30
Yayoi Kusama
Galaxy Red A,B,C
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000
Sold for £313,250
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31
This lot is no longer available.
32
Martin Kippenberger
S.Q.36/I.B.B.D. (Ich bin Besonders Doof)
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000 ♠
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33
Bill Viola
Ablutions
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000
Sold for £181,250
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34
Margherita Manzelli
Mr. Grigio
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ♠
Sold for £121,250
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35
Nigel Cooke
Drift
Estimate £150,000 - 250,000 ‡♠
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36
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ‡♠
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37
Ged Quinn
Things are Exactly as they Seem
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ‡♠
Sold for £91,250
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Contemporary Art Evening Sale

10 October 2012 London

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Provenance

Catalogue Essay

Artist Biography

Rudolf Stingel

36

Rudolf Stingel

Untitled

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

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10 October 2012
London