Cristina BanBan - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale London Wednesday, June 29, 2022 | Phillips

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  • 'Hands are my favourite part of the human body, after the teeth. Playing with hands brings movement into the painting. It doesn’t matter if the subjects are in relaxed positions, hands always create a dynamic composition.'
    —Cristina BanBan
    The Spanish artist Cristina BanBan’s evocative portrayal of the female form has quickly attracted international praise with exhibitions worldwide. Through her work, BanBan celebrates women and the spaces they occupy, depicting her subject’s ballooned bodies enveloping the entirety of the canvas. The fleshy figures in her paintings sprawl across the picture plane, subverting established notions of patriarchy and confronting the traditional male gaze. As I Set Myself Free is a powerful celebration of female relationships between friends and lovers whilst monumentalising their bold and voluptuous bodies.

     

    Through her works, BanBan combines her classical training from the University of Barcelona with her interest in Japanese Anime, thereby creating paintings with a universal appeal. Isolated aspects of the body are stylised and enlarged in an expressive style to represent complex emotions. Banban explains ‘When I think about hands in paintings, the first thing that comes to mind are Philip Guston’s—so sophisticated and iconic.’i


    As I Set Myself Free was included in Banban’s first solo show in Germany, I’ve got nothing to lose at 68 Projects, Berlin. The artist has since been celebrated with multiple solo exhibitions including two shows with Perrotin in Paris in 2022 and Perrotin in Shanghai in  2021 and. A forthcoming solo exhibition of the artist’s work is planned with Skarstedt this Autumn.  


    i Evan Pricco, 'Cristina BanBan, The Nuance of Memory', Juxtapose, 2021, online

    • Provenance

      68 projects, Berlin
      Acquired from the above by the present owner

    • Exhibited

      Berlin, 68 projects, Cristina BanBan: I've got nothing to lose, 25 April - 22 June 2019

    • Literature

      Anna Mackenzie, 'The painter subverting the male gaze with exaggerated female forms', Sleek Magazine, 29 April 2019, online (illustrated)

Property from a Private Swiss Collection

110

As I Set Myself Free

signed with the artist’s initials ‘CB’ lower left; signed, titled and dated 'CRISTINA BANBAN 'AS I SET MYSELF FREE' 2019' on the reverse
acrylic on canvas
180 x 150 cm (70 7/8 x 59 in.)
Painted in 2019.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
£30,000 - 50,000 ‡♠

Sold for £144,900

Contact Specialist

Simon Tovey

Specialist, Associate Director, Head of Day Sale, 20th Century & Contemporary Art
+44 20 7318 4084

stovey@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale

London Auction 29 June 2022