Provenance
Saatchi Collection, London
11 Duke Street, London
Phillips de Pury & Company, New York, ‘Contemporary Art I’, 12 May 2005, lot 53
Acquired from the above sale by the present owner
Exhibited
Malmö, Rooseum-Center for Contemporary Art, Andreas Gursky, 25 March–14 May 1995, n.p. (another example exhibited; illustrated)
Tate Gallery Liverpool, Andreas Gursky: Images, July 1–27 August 1995 (another example exhibited; illustrated on exhibition flyer), Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Winterthur
Fotomuseum, London, Serpentine Gallery, Edinburgh, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Turin, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea and Lisbon, Centro Cultural de Belém, Andreas Gursky: Fotografien 1994–1998, May 1998–December 1998, pp. 58, 59 no. 56 (another example exhibited; illustrated)
Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Andreas Gursky: Photographs from 1984 to the present, August 29 – October 18, 1998, pp. 58-59, no. 56 (another example exhibited, illustrated)
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Andreas Gursky, March 4 – May 15, 2001, pp.132–33 (another example; illustrated)
Donaueschingenm, Fürstenberg Sammlungen, Ahead of the 21st Century: the Pisces Collection, June 2002–October 2004, pp. 92–93, no. 66 (illustrated)
Literature
P. Amsellem and L. Nittve, eds., Andreas Gursky, Malmö, 1995, n.p. (illustrated)
C. Hagen, Art in Review, “Andreas Gursky” The New York Times, February 13,1995
U. Grosenick, ed., Andreas Gursky-Fotografien 1994-1998, Wolfsburg, 1998-2000, PP. 10-11 (illustrated)
M.L. Syring, ed., Andreas Gursky: Photographs from 1984 to the present, Munich, 1998, pp. 58-59, no 56 (illustrated)
L. Cooke, R. Pfab and M.L. Syring, Andreas Gursky: Fotografien 1984 bis heute, Munich, 1998, pp. 56-57 (illustrated)
D. Galloway, “The Cool Conceptualist” Artnews, February 2001, vol 100, no. 2, p. 139 (illustrated)
U. Grosenick, ed., Ahead of the 21th Century: the pisces collection, Ostfildern-Ruit, 2002, pp. 92- 93, no. 66 (illustrated)
D. Aaronson, ed., Photography transformed\; the Metropolitan Bank & Trust Collection, New York, 2002, pp. 102-103 (illustrated)
M. Hentschel, ed, Andreas Gursky Arbeten – Works 80-08, Ostfildern, 2008, pp. 126-127 (illustrated)
Catalogue Essay
“Vision is an intelligent form of thought.’’ ANDREAS GURSKY

“Andreas Gursky’s best pictures of the past decade knock your socks off and they’re meant to. They’re big, bold, full of colour and full of surprise. As each delivers its punch, the viewer is already wondering where it came from – and will continue to enjoy the seduction of surprise long after scrutinizing the picture in detail.” (Peter Galassi, Andreas Gursky, New York, 2001, p.9)

Hong Kong Stock Exchange, from 1994 is a monumental photographic diptych by the internationally renowned artist Andreas Gursky. Striking, thought- provoking and artfully constructed; the artist’s iconic photographs astutely render the nature of contemporary globalization. Gursky portrays the post-modern structures of a civilized world. It is through this process that he questions the properties of our contemporary existence. Inevitably, Gursky’s poetic photographic depiction of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is preoccupied with capitalist society and the systems of exchange that form it. The work subtly scrutinizes the manifestations of the growing global economy. In Gursky’s work, it is no longer modernity that is the powerful force instilling its presence within society. Instead, this pivotal photograph reveals the nature of a humanity trapped by the perpetually shifting economic structures of the world.

The present lot is an important work in Gursky’s career. It is impossible to absorb Gursky’s epic photographs in a single glance and time needs to be spent examining all of the exquisite details that Gursky captures. The fragments, which make up an overwhelming whole, reveal a fundamental tension between the minute and the monumental, the microcosmic and macrocosm. This dichotomy induces a continuous shift in focus and these powerful compositional elements are a forceful visual metaphor. Gursky both comments on the individual and on our anonymity in the modern world. The distance that Gursky creates between viewer and subject is deeply unsettling. Essentially, the observer and the observed are one and when appraising Gursky’s work, we are inevitably scrutinizing an element of ourselves. Hong Kong Stock Exchange is densely packed with finite details; individual facial expressions, actions, communications. Yet, when observed from Gursky’s transcendent vantage point, these individual facets fuse. The people are powerfully frozen in a moment of becoming, intertwined into an undeniably intriguing whole.

Gursky does not simply document but also construct his subjects. Consequently, it is consciously that the artist directs our attention. Gursky is not simply a recorder of reality. His digital techniques, such as colour enhancements, repetitions and reductions, act as his palette while the original image, is his canvas. Hong Kong Stock Exchange is created as if Gursky was as much a painter as a photographer. Perhaps, Gursky’s altered photography is “a post-modern tool for presenting the postmodern
world” (Alix Ohnlin, ‘Gursky and the Contemporary Sublime’, Art Journal, vol. 61, no. 4, 2002). Peter Galassi astutely summarizes this process: “documentary realism versus digital manipulation, modernist idealism versus postmodern skepticism, high art versus commerce, conceptual rigor versus spontaneous observation, photography versus painting: these and other antagonisms have engendered some fierce battles, but for Gursky they are all givens – not opponents but companions” (Galassi, 2001, p. 41).

Fascinatingly, the implicit suggestions present within Hong Kong Stock Exchange are profoundly current. Arguably, the implications of this work suggest the flaws of capitalism. Recently financial institutions have been the centre of searching criticism. In this work, Gursky places them, and the people within them, under a microscope. The monetary transactions undertaken within the stock exchange, the millions in flux are frozen. The world is stopped for a second and we are allowed to take a step back
and observe. In this manner, Gursky uncovers the fragility of the minute figures who occupy the restrictive space of the trading floor. Today, more than ever, Gursky’s subjects seem to be paused on the brink of the disaster. In this sense, this photo is as current now as it was when it was taken – Gursky made this photograph in the same year that the Tokyo Stock Exchange began its descent and the bubble of the Japanese economy burst.

26

Andreas Gursky

Hong Kong Stock Exchange (diptych)

1994
two colour coupler prints
each: 180 × 250 cm (70 7/8 × 98 3/8 in)
Each signed, titled, numbered and dated ‘Hong Kong Stock Exchange ’94
A.Gursky A.P.’ on the reverse. This work is an artist’s proof from the edition of six.

Estimate
£400,000 - 600,000 ‡♠

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

10 October 2012
London

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

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

10 October 2012 London

Create your first list.

Provenance

Exhibited

Literature

Catalogue Essay

26

Andreas Gursky

Hong Kong Stock Exchange (diptych)

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

Create your first list.

10 October 2012
London