Tony Cragg - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale London Thursday, June 29, 2017 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris
    Private Collection, Switzerland

  • Catalogue Essay

    Twisting from its core, Tony Cragg’s poetic Black Diabas is a pivotal sculpture belonging to the species that the artist refers to as his Rational Beings. This monumental series originating from the 1990s, is a group of organic abstract forms which evolve from drawings and are executed in a range of materials. The kinetic whirling forms of Black Diabas transgress multiple dimensions and challenge the limits of physical space. Articulated columns, combine the organic with the dynamic; profiles emerge and disappear, confronting the question of how man interacts with his surroundings. Suggestive of human form and the geometries within it, the Black Diabas is biotoc, reflecting the human cells, molecules and bone structures, which for the artist ‘will always be a preoccupation’ (Tony Cragg, ‘The Articulated Column Continued’, Tony Cragg: In and Out of Material, Cologne, 2006, pp. 23-4). Like an alchemist, Cragg breathes life into the form, his visual language transmuting static matter into animated shapes.

169

Black Diabas

black diabas
overall 216 x 60 x 60 cm (85 x 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 in.)
sculpture 136 x 60 x 60 cm (53 1/2 x 23 5/8 x 23 5/8 in.)

Executed in 2006.

Estimate
£150,000 - 200,000 ‡♠

Sold for £311,000

Contact Specialist
Tamila Kerimova
Specialist, Head of Day Sale
+ 44 20 7318 4065
tkerimova@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale

London Auction 30 June 2017