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In Caroline Walker’s 2010 painting, Conservation, a woman in her underwear stretches to place an Ancient Greek vase on a floating glass shelf. She stands in a minimal, yet luxurious, interior, with an orchid, cowhide rug, and four mirror-paneled closet doors, which reflect the scene back in on itself. The present work dates to a key point in Walker’s career as an artist, when she shifted from painting scenes of Victorian-style interiors to spaces with more modern architecture.i Having grown up in a Victorian home herself, the change in scenery ignited Walker’s curiosity as an artist, and she continued to push themes of perspective, reflection, and interiority.
“[I] became interested in the idea of dream homes, and what might go on in them.”
—Caroline WalkerThe abundance of reflective surfaces in the dream home of Conservation—from the closet doors to the glass shelves and table—encourages a sense of prolonged contemplation. Walker utilizes these surfaces to keep the eye moving between objects, their reflections, and fragments of those reflections. The woman acts, and acts in reflection; the viewer views, and views again. The visual device recalls Édouard Manet’s Bar aux Folies-Bergère, 1882, Courtauld Gallery, London, which shows a female bartender at work, and the scene behind her reflected in a bar-length mirror. But where Manet’s work traffics in how the female bartender is seen by her male patrons, Walker inverts the gender of the painter’s gaze. How, she wonders, is it different when it’s a woman looking at women?ii
Édouard Manet, Bar aux Folies-Bergère, 1882. The Courtauld Gallery, London. Image: © The Courtauld / Bridgeman Images In Conservation, Walker places the viewer behind a white armchair, a slightly covert position, which allows them to see the woman, and her reflection, perhaps without being seen in return. While Walker jokes that her voyeuristic impulse stems from “being nosy,” there’s also a calm sense of intimacy to the placement of the gaze in Conservation.iii It is as if we are sitting in the room together with the woman, watching her in a delicate moment of trust; in sheer underwear, her sweater lifting up her midriff, she extends on tiptoe to place the fragile vase.
“I like moving between that slightly voyeuristic position and then actually being in the room, becoming much more implicated in the scene.”
—Caroline WalkerWalker directs her painterly gaze towards the overlooked parts of women’s lives; the interior spaces they occupy, and the work they do within them. Walker is fascinated by the daily tasks women perform that, as she says, are by their very nature invisible because of what they aim to achieve.iv Take, for example, dusting a set of floating glass shelves, or watering an orchid, domestic tasks that go unnoticed until they have been neglected too long. The shelves gather dust, the orchid droops; Walker records this conservation work, this upkeep of domestic space, across her painted oeuvre.
Collectors’ Digest
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Phillips holds the auction record for the artist with Threshold, 2014, realizing $1.1M at our London 20th Century and Contemporary Art Evening Sale in March 2023. Caroline Walker’s popularity with collectors continues to grow.
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Her work is represented in a number of public collections, including the National Museum of Wales; Pérez Art Museum, Miami; and Kunstmuseum, The Hague.
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Recent solo exhibitions include K11 Shanghai, Caroline Walker: Women Observed, Nov. 8, 2022-Feb. 12, 2023; Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, Caroline Walker: Lisa, Apr. 29-May 29, 2022. Her work is currently on display at the Foundling Museum, London, as part of the exhibition Finding Family, through August 27th.
i Caroline Walker, quoted in Emily Spicer, “Caroline Walker: ‘Who we perceive to be the maker of an image affects how we consume it,” studio international, Oct. 4, 2017, online.
ii Walker, quoted in Chloë Ashby, “The Eyes of Caroline Walker: ‘It’s different when it’s a woman looking at women,’” Elephant, May 13, 2022, online.
iii Ibid.
iv Ibid.
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Provenance
Ana Cristea Gallery, New York
Private Collection (acquired from the above in 2011)
Handpicked: 50 works selected by the Saatchi Gallery, Christie’s, London, March 27, 2019, lot 27
Acquired at the above sale by the present ownerExhibited
New York, Ana Cristea Gallery, Caroline Walker: Vantage Point, February 24–April 2, 2011
Literature
Marco Livingstone, Jane Neal and Matt Price, Caroline Walker: In Every Dream Home, Wakefield, 2013, p. 9 (illustrated, p. 45)
Matt Price, “The Scottish Connection,” Flash Art, November 9, 2015, online (illustrated)
Ο◆2
Conservation
oil on canvas
78 3/4 x 114 3/8 in. (200 x 290.5 cm)
Painted in 2010.
Estimate
$150,000 - 350,000
Sold for $469,900
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
This lot is no longer available.
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
This lot is no longer available.
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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