Christopher Wool - 20th Century & Contemporary Art: Online Auction New York Tuesday, March 21, 2023 | Phillips

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  • “Balls” by Christopher Wool is a privately commissioned painting from 1984–1985, which demonstrates the artist’s unique style and approach to abstraction. Upon close inspection, several gestural features can be seen to be an homage to the grand oeuvres of the Abstract Expressionist master painters of the 1950s. Though Wool’s work spans decades, and he has experimented with several distinct styles up until the contemporary, his early use of abstraction is some of the artist’s finest work.

     

    Upon closer analysis, the painting reveals itself to be a complex interplay of positive and negative space, with each element carefully placed to create a sense of tension and balance, resulting in an aesthetic phenomenon. This work is a riff on the works of Suprematist artists such as Kazimir Malevich, who sought to create pure, non-representational forms that embodied the spiritual and utopian ideals of his model society.

     

    Throughout his career, Wool has been influenced by various art movements, and his work can be praised for its striking visual impact and its critical engagement with a socio-historical analysis of art while representing his personal beliefs on what art should be. Wool stated “…postmodernism means to me, the end of that modernist idea that the artist makes perfect works. I make a lot of mistakes, but I keep them. I use them and recycle them.”This personal philosophy is discernibly imbued in the word “Balls,” particularly in the way its surface appears to be imperfect and somewhat gestic. What is perceived as mistakes made in the studio by the artist or flaws in the medium, are incorporated into the artwork and become a necessary part of what it represents – an integral element of Wool’s artistic technique.

     

     

    i Christopher Wool, quoted in Stuart Jeffries, Punk painter Christopher Wool: ‘I make a lot of mistakes – and keep them in,’ The Guardian, June 2, 2022, online

    • Provenance

      Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner in 1985

Property from a Distinguished New York Collection

29

Balls

signed, titled and dated ""BALLS" CHRISTOPHER WOOL 1984-85" on the reverse
enamel on panel
48 x 58 in. (121.9 x 147.3 cm)
Executed in 1984-85.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$70,000 - 100,000 

Sold for $50,800

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20th Century & Contemporary Art: Online Auction

21 - 28 March 2023