Caroline Walker - New Now & Design Hong Kong Sunday, November 26, 2023 | Phillips

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  • “In a lot of my paintings there’s always something you have to look through or past to get to the subject of the work where you’re almost like a voyeur, I suppose, looking in on other's lives. You get this glimpse of somebody's life, and you don't know anything about them, but in your head you can kind of imagine who they might be or where they live — what they do with their days.”
    — Caroline Walker

    Study for An Arm’s Length is a poignant and psychologically charged example of Caroline Walker’s creative practice and working technique. The Scottish artist is best known for her realistic works that feature female subjects within enclosed and public spaces. Rendered in a spectrum of blue and grey tones, the present work exudes a sense of stillness and quietness, offering viewers a voyeuristic view of the protagonist’s private lifestyle. As the title An Arm’s Length suggests, Walker masterfully captures this intimate scene from a distance, as if peering through a window yet not in a threatening manner.


    Rather than presenting an image of a woman at work as with most of Walker’s compositions, the present painting depicts an anonymous female figure lounging restfully along the sofa whilst taking a moment of respite. Executed as a preparatory study for Walker’s large-scale painting An Arm’s Length, the current scene appears to be meticulously staged. As Benno Tempel writes, ‘each composition is carefully prepared. A setting – location, character and action – is found and photographed. Her photos are the starting point for sketches. These lead to studies in oil, where she explores colours and brushwork.i Walker probes the idea of being an observer and places viewers in the position of an unseen spectator through the elevated perspective and cropped angles that she masterfully implements. Creating an invisible barrier between us and the private world we are intruding upon.


    Born 1982 in Scotland, Walker currently resides and works in London. Walker attended Glasgow School of Art before completing her MA at the Royal College of Art, London, and has been honoured with solo exhibitions at the Midlands Art Centre, Birmingham and KM21, The Hague, 2021; Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, 2018; as well as the Fitzrovia Chapel, London.
     
    Having received widespread critical acclaim over the past decade, her works are represented in important collections around the world including KM21 Kunstmuseum, The Hague, The UK Government Art Collection, London, National Museum Wales, Cardiff and Pérez Art Museum Miami.

     

     

    i Benno Tempel, ‘A Day in a Life’, in Caroline Walker, Windows (exh. cat.), Amsterdam, 2021, p. 5.

    • Provenance

      Private Collection (acquired directly from the artist)
      Christie's, London, 18 October 2022, lot 13
      Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

15

Study for An Arm's Length

signed, titled and dated '"Study for An Arm's Length" Caroline Walker 2011.' on the reverse
oil on canvas paper
40.4 x 45.3 cm. (15 7/8 x 17 7/8 in.)
Executed in 2011.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
HK$200,000 - 300,000 
€23,600-35,400
$25,600-38,500

Contact Specialist

Angela Tian
Associate Specialist, Head of New Now & Design Sale
20th Century & Contemporary Art, Hong Kong
+852 2318 2058
AngelaTian@phillips.com

New Now & Design

Hong Kong Auction 26 November 2023