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Anna Weyant’s Unconditional Love, 2021, presents two young women, possibly sisters, sitting in a rigid, photography studio-style portrait. Their pose seems ordinary, but there’s something slightly off about them: the brunette seems to be sitting on the blonde’s knee—the curve of the latter’s black striped tights just visible under the brunette’s legs—yet the angle is too high and long to be anatomically proportionate. The blonde’s head tilts oddly away from her companion, too. Following the line of the brunette’s arm we see that she’s sticking her finger in the blonde’s ear. This gesture, the wet willy, is the ultimate sibling prank. While Weyant herself has a brother, not a sister, the general sense of sibling rivalry—the smugness of the brunette’s placid expression, contrasted with that of the exasperated blonde—shines through in Unconditional Love.
“A little creepiness can save a painting sometimes.”
—Anna WeyantWeyant’s uncanny siblings find their features in a rich art history of figure painting. The extended leg of the blonde recalls a Mannerist disregard for anatomical proportion in pursuit of emotional heft (Parmigianino’s Madonna with the Long Neck, c. 1535-1540, Uffizi, Florence, being one such example). Frans Hals, too, is a strong referent; the flushed, round cheeks of Weyant’s brunette seems straight out of one of his jovial portraits. Weyant purposefully engages the muted color palettes of Dutch painters like Hals; she prefers not to be distracted by color, rather, she draws the viewer’s focus towards her figures, and the situations she’s placed them in.
[Left] Frans Hals, Catharina Hooft with her Nurse, 1620. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. Image: © Fine Art Images / Bridgeman Images
[Right] John Currin, Thanksgiving, 2003. Tate, London. Image: © Tate, London / Art Resource, NY, Artwork: © John CurrinOne of Weyant’s greatest influences, however, is contemporary artist John Currin. His figures’ features, always just slightly off, lend a surreal edge to their everyday settings. Weyant strikes a similar emotional tone with Unconditional Love; her smooth, highly-finished surfaces give the sense that “there’s something in the water,” as she says. “The sinister can often be masked by beauty or even tranquility.”i
The vague sense of secret or hidden meaning in Unconditional Love reminds one of the European tradition of courtly portraits, particularly those of noble sisters. In Pieter van der Faes’ Mary Capel, Later Duchess of Beaufort, and her Sister Elizabeth, Countess of Carnarvon, c. 1650, the two sisters are depicted with austere, even dour expressions, and stiffly formal posture. However, each holds a small object that hints towards their lives outside the picture frame. Mary, at left, holds a wreath of leaves, signaling her interest in botanical research, while Elizabeth holds a painting of a flower she made herself.ii These attributes are the custom touch to this otherwise standard courtly portrait; without them, the sisters are hard to recognize as individuals. Through the selection of uncanny details in Unconditional Love, namely, the brunette’s finger in the blonde’s ear, Weyant leaves a similar mark of originality.
Pieter van der Faes, Mary Capel, Later Duchess of Beaufort and her Sister Elizabeth, Countess of Carnarvon, c. 1650. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Image: © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Jacob Ruppert, 1939, 39.65.3 Weyant has often cited her childhood as the source of inspiration for her work; she loves the “traumatic, dramatic, devastating and hilarious” experience of being a teenager.iii As a teen, having your sibling stick their wet finger in your ear—and having that moment photographed—could be absolutely devastating. Weyant mines this emotional richness in the subtle yet precise expressions of her figures, and their postural interconnectedness. After all, the brunette couldn’t sit without the support of the blonde’s knee, and the blonde’s expression wouldn’t make any sense without her sister’s finger. However tiresome, their love is unconditional.
i Anna Weyant, quoted in Bill Powers, “The Credible Image: An Interview of Anna Weyant on the Occasion of her Solo Exhibition Loose Screw,” Autre, Mar. 5, 2021, online.
ii “Mary Capel, Later Duchess of Beaufort, and her Sister Elizabeth, Countess of Carnarvon,” The Met, accessed Apr. 2023, online.
iii Weyant, quoted in Sasha Bogojev, “Anna Weyant: Welcome to the Dollhouse,” Juxtapoz, 2020, online.
Provenance
Blum & Poe, Los Angeles
Acquired from the above by the present ownerExhibited
Los Angeles, Blum & Poe, Loose Screw, March 23–May 1, 2021
Literature
Bill Powers, “The Credible Image: An Interview of Anna Weyant on the Ocassion of her Solo Exhibition Loose Screw,” Autre Magazine, March 5, 2021, online (illustrated)
Paul Laster, “Anna Weyant Embraces Dark Humor Through Realist Painting,” Art & Object, April 16, 2021, online (Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, 2021, installation view illustrated)
Noor Brara, “Artist Anna Weyant Paints the Indignities of Being a Young Woman- and Collectors of All Ages Can’t Get Enough,” Artnet, September 16, 2021, online (illustrated)
"27-Year-Old Painter Anna Weyant Makes History at Gagosian Gallery," DDW, May 7, 2022, online (illustrated)
Raquel Fernández Sobrín, “Anna Weyant’s Artistic World,” Suit Magazine, July 30, 2022, online (illustrated)
Ο◆22
Unconditional Love
signed and dated "Anna Weyant 2021 ♥" on the reverse
oil on canvas
71 7/8 x 48 in. (182.6 x 121.9 cm)
Painted in 2021.
Estimate
$400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $609,600
Carolyn Mayer
Associate Specialist, Head of Evening Sale, New York
+1 212 940 1206
CMayer@phillips.com
20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale
New York Auction 17 May 2023
1
Noah Davis
Untitled
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $990,600
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2
Caroline Walker
Conservation
Estimate $150,000 - 350,000
Sold for $469,900
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3
Julien Nguyen
Jeu de Paume
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $127,000
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4
Pablo Picasso
Tête de femme au chignon
Estimate $6,000,000 - 9,000,000
Sold for $7,320,000
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5
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6
Louise Bonnet
The Red Pants
Estimate $300,000 - 500,000
Sold for $406,400
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7
Yayoi Kusama
Red Stripes
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $2,722,000
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8
Yayoi Kusama
Blue Spots
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $3,206,000
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9
Ewa Juszkiewicz
Untitled (after Ernst Thelott)
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $635,000
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10
Andy Warhol
Self-Portrait (Fright Wig)
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,633,000
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11
Ed Ruscha
Dixie Red Seville
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
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12
Yoshitomo Nara
Guitar Girl
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,480,000
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13
Banksy
Banksquiat. Boy and Dog in Stop and Search
Estimate $8,000,000 - 12,000,000
Sold for $9,724,500
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14
Henry Taylor
Dakar, Senegal #3
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $584,200
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15
Robert Colescott
A Death of an Old Mulatta
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
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16
Rashid Johnson
Untitled Escape Collage
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $990,600
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17
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18
Roy Lichtenstein
Mirror #7
Estimate $3,000,000 - 4,000,000
Sold for $2,843,000
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19
Damien Hirst
Reconciliation
Estimate $700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $927,100
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20
Robert Ryman
Mark
Estimate $3,000,000 - 4,000,000
Sold for $3,811,000
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21
Wayne Thiebaud
Chocolate Merangue
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,238,000
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22
Anna Weyant
Unconditional Love
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $609,600
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23
This lot is no longer available.
24
María Berrío
No One Can Hear You, Only the Wind
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $635,000
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25
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (Standard Lotus XVI Face 44.15)
Estimate $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for $4,295,000
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26
Wayne Thiebaud
Levee and Cow
Estimate $2,500,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for $3,085,000
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27
Andy Warhol
Mao
Estimate $800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for $1,117,600
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28
Andy Warhol
Mona Lisa Four Times
Estimate $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for $2,359,000
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29
Ed Ruscha
Manual Mobility
Estimate $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for $3,448,000
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30
Jadé Fadojutimi
The Menstrual Marshland
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $533,400
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31
Helen Frankenthaler
On the Road
Estimate $1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for $1,875,000
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32
Robert Rauschenberg
Bath
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $444,500
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33
This lot is no longer available.
34
Sanya Kantarovsky
Deprivation
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $266,700
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35
Roy Lichtenstein
Girl in Mirror
Estimate $4,500,000 - 5,500,000
Sold for $5,505,000
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36
Issy Wood
Untitled (Harley's foot thing)
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
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37
Simone Leigh
Figure (Cobalt)
Estimate $700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for $825,500
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38
Joan Miró
L’Espace
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $381,000
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39
Joan Miró
Femme et oiseau
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
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40
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
“Untitled” (March 5th) #2
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $635,000
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41
Sturtevant
Study for Warhol Marilyn
Estimate $1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for $2,419,500
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