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"[The still life paintings] are very meditative and pleasant to make. I can make them alone. I set them up in my apartment, and I light them, and it’s dark and very comfortable...I’d say these are my favorites. I’m very attached and fond of them."
—Anna WeyantPainted in 2021, Buffet II is a seductive example of Anna Weyant’s acclaimed still lifes. Presenting a basket of grapes, a glass of wine, fresh market produce, and eggs on a buffet table that spans beyond the picture plane, the artist draws the viewer into an eerie scene that teeters between striking realism and suggestions of the uncanny—a hallmark of her oeuvre. Offering a contemporary twist on the paintings of Dutch Golden Age masters, the present work showcases the artist’s signature use of dramatic chiaroscuro and scrupulous brushwork in rendering compositions that are at once elegant and unnerving. Buffet II captures the artist’s penchant for “filter[ing] her influences through mental and visual sieves to create charming canvases ripe with dark humor.”i
René Magritte, Souvenir de voyage, 1951. The Menil Collection, Houston. Artwork: © 2022 C. Herscovici / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York "I have always loved the line in the children’s book Madeline when Miss Clavel says, ‘Something isn’t right.’"
—Anna WeyantDrawing upon centuries of Western painting from the Dutch Golden Age to modern Surrealism, Weyant is best known for her meticulously rendered still lifes and figurative paintings of women imbued with psychological decadence. In Buffet II, Weyant situates herself within the lineage of her still life predecessors such as Gerrit van Honthorst, Pieter Claesz, and Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin while conjuring the Surrealist sensibility of René Magritte. Exemplifying the signature sepia tone of her compositions, the present work reveals the artist’s aim to avoid the “distraction of color,” focusing on refined handling through a traditional painterly language. This materializes the sense of the uncanny purely through her representational choices, as Magritte did, allowing the viewer to engage with the narrative elements that appear conventional at first glance but reveal their disconcerting nature upon closer observation. Here, a single grape holds up the tablecloth, revealing what appears to be a mattress rather than a dining table, as red liquid eerily streams down the composition to fill a wine glass, its source placed out of the picture plane.
Pieter Claesz, Still Life, ca. 1625. The Art Institute of Chicago. Image: Art Institute of Chicago, Simeon B. Williams Fund, 1935.300 "Somewhat concealed and certainly not forced. It's the ‘wrongness’ of the details and/or the overall setup that creates [Weyant’s] tragicomic narratives."
—Sasha BogojevWeyant’s painterly style ultimately reveals her fascination with tragicomedy that permeates her practice. When asked about this quality that defines her work, Weyant expressed, “Humor can be a way to control discomfort. Mark Twain said something about humor being ‘tragedy plus time.’ If there’s humor in my work, it probably goes hand in hand with some sort of weird misery.”ii In the present work, lighthearted humor is found in the “peek-a-boo” unveil by the single grape and the anthropomorphic envelopes, mitigating the ominous reverb of the red liquid that suggests a violent ending of a horror story and the leek shaped like a pistol. Through this lens, Weyant masterfully translates the theme of vanitas or memento mori—again harkening back to her Dutch still-life predecessors—in Buffet II through her singular sensibility of weaving the sinister with the charming, menacing with the enchanting, dark with the light. Encapsulating the “harsh elegance” of the emerging artist’s alluring oeuvre, the present work embodies Rae Niwa’s words. “[Weyant’s paintings are] laden with a weight that is not to be played with or mistaken as passing novelty...Somewhere between the gentle repose of still lifes adorned with revolvers and irreverent symbols, the viewer is seized and seduced into a world of twisted intrigue...a mystery just out of reach.”iii
i Paul Laster, “Anna Weyant Embraces Dark Humor Through Realist Painting,” Art & Object, April 16, 2021, online.
ii Anna Weyant, quoted in ibid.
iii Rae Niwa, “Anna Weyant: That Sliver is Painful,” Flaunt Magazine, March 4, 2022.Provenance
Blum & Poe, Los Angeles
Acquired from the above by the present ownerLiterature
"Basel is Back: A Review of Art Basel 2021," Juxtapoz Magazine, September 28, 2021 (installation view illustrated)
1
Buffet II
signed and dated "Anna Weyant 2021 ♥" on the reverse
oil on canvas
48 x 60 1/4 in. (121.9 x 153 cm)
Painted in 2021.
Estimate
$100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $730,800
Amanda Lo Iacono
Global Managing Director and Specialist, Head of Evening Sale, New York
+1 212 940 1278
ALoiacono@phillips.com
Carolyn Mayer
Associate Specialist, Associate Head of Evening Sale, New York
+1 212 940 1206
CMayer@phillips.com
20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale
New York Auction 18 May 2022
1
Anna Weyant
Buffet II
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $730,800
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2
Robin F. Williams
Nude Waiting It Out
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $327,600
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3
María Berrío
Burrow of the Yellow
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $998,000
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4
Hilary Pecis
Adrianne's Bookshelf
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $630,000
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5
Lisa Yuskavage
Northview (Impressionist Jacket)
Estimate $700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $1,106,900
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6
Mark Rothko
Untitled
Estimate $6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Sold for $8,435,000
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7
Yves Klein
Monochrome bleu sans titre (IKB 267)
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,752,500
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8
Shara Hughes
The Not Dark Dark Spots
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $1,603,000
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9
Helen Frankenthaler
Blue Dance
Estimate $1,800,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for $2,208,000
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10
Alexander Calder
39=50
Estimate $10,500,000 - 14,500,000
Sold for $15,648,500
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11
Yayoi Kusama
Untitled (Nets)
Estimate $5,000,000 - 7,000,000
Sold for $10,496,000
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12
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled
Estimate On Request
Sold for $85,000,000
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13
Andy Warhol
Multicolored Retrospective (Reversal Series)
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $3,748,750
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14
Pablo Picasso
Figures et plante
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $10,267,000
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15
Yves Klein
Relief Éponge bleu sans titre (RE 49)
Estimate $14,000,000 - 18,000,000
Sold for $19,999,500
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16
Carmen Herrera
Basque
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $1,603,000
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17
Amy Sherald
She was learning to love moments, to love moments for themselves
Estimate $1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for $1,482,000
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18
Emmanuel Taku
The Three Damsels
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $252,000
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19
Roy Lichtenstein
Nude
Estimate $8,000,000 - 12,000,000
Sold for $10,267,000
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20
Issy Wood
Actual car 2
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $478,800
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21
Wayne Thiebaud
Berry Cake
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $2,813,000
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22
Andy Warhol
Flowers
Estimate $8,000,000 - 12,000,000
Sold for $9,351,000
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23
Reggie Burrows Hodges
Intersection of Color: Suite
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $730,800
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24
Robert Delaunay
L'Équipe de Cardiff
Estimate $700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $877,000
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25
Justin Caguiat
Doll 3 Eros
Estimate $380,000 - 450,000
Sold for $504,000
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26
Andy Warhol
The Star (Greta Garbo as Mata Hari)
Estimate $7,000,000 - 10,000,000
Sold for $9,580,000
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27
Cecily Brown
Angie
Estimate $4,500,000 - 6,500,000
Sold for $5,959,000
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28
Hans Hofmann
In Upper Regions
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $2,571,000
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29
Cy Twombly
Untitled
Estimate $7,000,000 - 10,000,000
Sold for $8,206,000
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30
Matthew Wong
Day 1
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $3,176,000
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31
This lot is no longer available.
32
Rafa Macarrón
La Perrera
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $378,000
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33
David Wojnarowicz
Fuck You Faggot Fucker
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $937,500
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34
Dondi White
Rebel Rocking the Blind Light
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $151,200
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35
Lauren Quin
Second Palm Third Stem
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $302,400
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36
Andy Warhol
Three works: (i-iii) Campbell's Tomato Juice Box
Estimate $700,000 - 900,000
Sold for $1,058,500
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37
Dana Schutz
Sneeze 2
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $277,200
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