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Highlights Tour
\n

\n\n

Milan
\n13 - 15 September
\nVia Lanzone 2
\n20123 Milan
\n

\n\n

Paris
\n20 - 24 September
\n46 Rue du Bac
\nParis 75007
\n

\n\n

New York
\n18 - 25 September
\n432 Park Avenue
\nNew York NY 10022
\n
\nAdmission to this sale is by ticket only.
\nPlease email tickets@phillips.com
\n

\n","auctionDetailsSmall","London Auction 13 October 2023","extraInfo","

Rosanna Widén
\nSenior Specialist, Head of Evening Sale
\n+44 20 7318 4060
\nrwiden@phillips.com
\n

\n\n

Olivia Thornton
\nHead of 20th Century & Contemporary Art, Europe
\n+44 20 7318 4099
\nothornton@phillips.com

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Daniel Richter, Schakal Reloaded, 2009. 20th Century & Contemporary Art.

\n\n

In the divided Germany of the 1980s, a group of outcasts in Hamburg emerged as a creative community united by a shared belief in a socialist future and a disdain for leadership in both the East and West. “In the early ‘80s, late ‘70s when I was young, punk was the way out,” painter Daniel Richter once recalled of his youth. Richter joined this informal group in his early 20s, squatting in abandoned buildings and engaging with the city’s thriving punk scene. The artist spent a decade living in this Hamburg community, satisfying his creative urge by making punk concert posters. He preferred to work alone, not favoring the inherently collaborative nature of music-making, later noting that making imagery “was the natural role the subculture chose for me.”

\n\n

The artist has recounted that this period was not without conflict, as the group often faced public backlash and assaults from the police, as well as violence from neo-Nazi groups. These early encounters added steam to Richter’s already established skepticism of authority, which can be seen throughout his later work.

\n\n

\n
“The idea was not to wait for the communist party, but instead to do it ourselves.”
\n—Daniel Richter
\n

\n\n

When the Berlin Wall fell, Richter’s reality crumbled, and the unification of Germany prompted the painter’s creative expansion into fine art. He remembers that when “the Soviet Union collapsed it was clear to me that there would be shifts of power in the world and that the idea of what a democracy is will be massively changing.” It was at this point, at the age of 30, that the artist realized he needed to find a new path, as many in his orbit had either become bitter with age or died young. It was a struggle for him to make this leap, recalling, “I didn’t have money, I didn’t have wealthy parents, I didn’t have any education, so I was a bum by definition of the State. The only thing that I had always done, and I’d always been obsessed with, was images.”

\n\n

He enrolled at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg to discover what can define art, led by a questioning of the artistic validity of his own posters. Upon graduation he worked as assistant to several artists, most notably Albert Oehlen, as he refined his painterly style, initially emerging on the scene with colorful abstract paintings before shifting to the more figurative and politically charged paintings that are emblematic of his social outlook.

\n\n

A Symbolic Jackal

\n\n

\n\n

Daniel Richter, Schakal Reloaded, 2009. 20th Century & Contemporary Art.

\n\n

Richter’s 2009 work Schakal Reloaded is a striking canvas that reflects the fraught political landscape of the early 2000s and the horrors of the war on terror. In this painting we’re confronted with what at first seems to be an enchanted mountain landscape, the complex narrative concentrated in Richter’s flattened pictorial space. This graphic visual language coupled with the work’s expressive use of color are somewhat reminiscent of graffiti and street art, perhaps relating to the artist’s early experience. On closer look, we discover a jackal figure at the left of the composition, rendered in a hazy orange. Its presence is menacing, and the nearby human figures scream in terror. It is the turbans of these figures coupled with Richter’s visual suggestion of the jackal’s symbolic associations that call to mind the charged political atmosphere of the time, reminding us of the nickname given to the powerful armored vehicles deployed to the Middle East by the United Kingdom. The overtones of the associations in this image can be considered as ascribed to the Western militaries, assigning them the personality of a cunning trickster, indifferent to the plight of others. Poignantly, we realize this scene places us in the mountainous border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the “jackal” vehicle roamed.

\n\n

\n\n

Daniel Richter, Schakal Reloaded (detail), 2009. 20th Century & Contemporary Art.

\n\n

This work is deeply rooted in the events that have defined Richter’s creative life. If the German reunification was the first historical event that shook Richter’s world, the terrorist attacks of September 11th were the second. The two are linked for Richter, as he has noted, “The fall of the Wall and the crumbling of the Soviet Union are the reason for the reappearance of religions and nationalism haunting us today.” By suggesting through charged symbolism that Western militaries are untrustworthy, Schakal Reloaded presents us with the tragic absurdity of such political tensions. The artist has made countless pointed comments on this dynamic in the post-9/11 era. He has remarked of Islamic extremism that “it’s a war for dumb guys believing in lord penis, in guns and violence, and all that kind of paranoid, fascist, megalomanic power scheisse.” In turn, he’s also pointed out that the very same ideals flow through the male leadership of some recent Western administrations and has questioned how the war machine has allowed Western economies to flourish. These ideas represent what perhaps defines Daniel Richter’s thinking — a continuous challenge of authority demonstrated not just by an approach to art and imagery, but to a way of life.

\n\n

Discover More from 20th Century & Contemporary Art >

\n\n

Recommended Reading

\n\n

Unreliable Witness: On memory and veracity in ‘Rome’ by Luc Tuymans >

\n\n

\n","publishDate","2023-10-02T15:27:02.000000Z","authorCredit","Jesse Limbacher","coverPosX",50,"coverPosY",0,"articleUrl","https://www.phillips.com/article/132403391/art-auction-london-daniel-richter-forever-punk","displayOrder","auctionEditorialID",1932,"editorialID",4345,"flocklerID",132403391,"https://flockler.com/thumbs/sites/889/tuymans-lead-8dc9c8f8-d133-471c-a2a4-6d1175c6d8bb_s600x0.jpg","On memory and veracity in ‘Rome’ by Luc Tuymans.","Unreliable Witness","

Luc Tuymans, Rome, 2007. 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, London.

\n\n

Luc Tuymans’ highly distinctive painting practice navigates the complex ambiguities between history, power, imagery, and memory; probing, in essence, these themes to question the very existence of absolute truth. “There is no truth in the work,” Tuymans asserted of his practice in an interview with Iona Whittaker, noting further and quite obliquely: “I have a high distrust for images, even my own.”

\n\n

Ahead of Phillips’ 20th Century & Contemporary Art auctions in London this October, where Tuymans’ monumental 2007 painting Rome will be offered at auction for the first time, we look to the artist’s work and ideas to explore memory and its relationship to truth, power, and identity.

\n\n

As the fresh-to-market Rome has been on loan since its initial acquisition — first to the Stedejlik Museum in Amsterdam and then to the Kunstmuseum in The Hauge — the occasion presents a rare opportunity to discover the painting, which will be on view at Phillips’ Berkeley Square gallery from 4 October through the auction on 13 October.

\n\n

Critically regarded for his belief in painting at a time when conceptual art circles had declared the practice futile, Tuymans has proved painting to be the only medium appropriate for his investigations into questions of power, memory, and visual representation. Moreover, as many of his contemporaries were moving increasingly into abstraction, Tuymans privileged the figurative, coming to prominence in the early 1990s as a painter of peculiar and affecting images that explored history and its antimonies, the strangeness of routine objects, and the ways in which power, technology, and time impact our vision in an increasingly fraught and rapidly evolving cultural landscape. His work has challenged the supposedly honest relationships between seeing, believing, and remembering, interrogating the forms and functions of images and the ways in which truth and falsehood are codependent entities.

\n\n

A consummate example of Tuymans’ painterly practice, Rome is one of nine canvases that make up Les Revenants — the first in a trilogy of series that confront the image as an instrument of power. First shown in 2007 at Zeno X Gallery in Antwerp, works from the series have gone on to be included in some of Tuymans’ most significant subsequent exhibitions. Only three works from the series have ever appeared at auction.

\n\n

Monumental in scale, Rome is the largest of the nine canvases from the series. Typical of the artist’s practice, the source material of the image was a homemade print of a digitally compressed image. The result is a painting that the writer Hans Theys describes as “reminiscent of illustrations in old textbooks. The reality has the air of a disintegrating cardboard theatre or thousands of scattered, tiny patches of light.” A muted tonal palette and soft, diffused brushstrokes are characteristically employed by Tuymans to present a cinematic image of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. The architectural heft of the basilica is conveyed by the sheer scale of the canvas and the spaciousness of the asymmetrical composition. Imposing structural details including massive sculptures and columns combine to present a majestic vision of the building, rendering the assembled enormous congregation almost insignificant before the weight of the occasion. Yet, much of the vital action is seen bottom right, where Belgian Archbishop Daneels is sparsely depicted among a group of candidates for elevation to cardinal. Just a moment after our first sight of this image, the newly elevated cardinals — including Daneels — will kneel.

\n\n

\n\n

Luc Tuymans, Rome (detail), 2007. 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, London.

\n\n

As noted by Theys, the muted tonal palette and Tuymans’ practice of working from manipulated old photographs presents this image as professedly historical. When we realize this image depicts a contemporary ceremony, one of great importance to Belgium, we realize how Tuymans uses imagery to play with our perception of time and memory. The artist has explained his approach, stating, “Art creates its own time span and in that sense also creates its own time lapse: you are looking at something that accords time to an image, as it is made and as it shows itself.” Tuymans’ work challenges our perception of time to pose questions between memory and belief and reveal to us the dangerous reality that memory, and thus our understanding of history, may be fallible. In turn, the work proves that the image is also fallible. As writer Christina Ruiz has remarked, “At the heart of Tuymans’ project is a central conceit: that images are unreliable, that they can offer us no more than a fragment of reality and that our own memories, personal or collective, mislead us.”

\n\n

Tuymans employs a masterful and carefully considered approach to the physicality of paint, tone, and color to impress these ideas. He explained in a 2021 recorded discussion for David Zwirner gallery that he is interested how his work can influence people, to make them stop and think, or to play off their own memories. He shared that this is the principal reason that his works explore tonality rather than simply color, as he has observed that when we perceive imagery monochromatically (even if his paintings are not monochromatic) the images return to our mind at a later point. In this sense, his work not only calls upon our existing memories but plants new ones — it seeks to leave an indelible mark, not simply an impression. “I wanted my paintings to look old from the start, which is important because they are about memory,” the artist has stated.

\n\n

\n\n

Luc Tuymans, Rome, 2007. 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, London.

\n\n

It is understandable why Tuymans so frequently turns to historical imagery to add weight and significance to his canvases. In the case of Rome — its pale muted color scheme appearing almost preternaturally faded — Tuymans calls upon our memories of historic religious imagery. As such, the work doesn’t just showcase the grand and theatrical nature of the religious ceremony, but also reminds us that much of the weight of the tradition and reverence for these spaces lies in the history of the church and, accordingly, the collective memories of its constituents.

\n\n

This notion of a cultural collective memory, understood through history and stories, leads us to consider memory’s impact on identity, as much personal consideration of identity lies in such shared memories, or even in the rebellion against them. In Rome, Tuymans confronts his own identity and background head on, as a Belgian painter who was raised Catholic. The artist explained to Artnet in 2010, “I come out of a country where painting is genetically understood. Highly Catholic because Catholics like images because they keep the people stupid. Western image building was born in that region, and, of course, huge trauma with it.” This wasn’t the first time the artist considered his own background and the history of Belgium in a critical light — at the 2001 Venice Biennale he presented work that explored the colonial brutality of Belgium’s occupation of Congo.

\n\n

Ultimately, in viewing Rome, we are presented with a complex web of associations that functions on us much like memory does. The painting leaves an impression, but we’re forced to connect the visual cues to find understanding in it. The experience is reminiscent of the effort we make in constructing a logical narrative from the memories of our dreams. It also recalls a tenet of Tuymans’ early work, which he described as being “about what history could mean if you dream it, and how inadequate our memory is.” Further ambiguity is lent to the image as it remains almost burned in our inner eyes after viewing, as though we’re still trying to understand the impression it leaves but unable to articulate it. As Tuymans’ himself has offered, “Every visual is in opposition to language because if we could say everything, why make a picture of it?”

\n\n

Discover More from 20th Century & Contemporary Art >

\n\n

Recommended Reading

\n\n

Forever Punk: Daniel Richter’s innate challenge of authority emerges in ‘Schakal Reloaded.’ >

\n\n

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‘‘I wanted to be painting subjects that did not exist or could not be painted from observation or photographed…to make something that felt like it had some kind of consequence.’’
\n—Dana Schutz

\n\n

Dana Schutz’s large-scale compositions feature subjects embroiled in absurd scenarios. In Gravity Fanatic, a woman has used tape and small weights to secure both herself and a variety of miscellaneous objects surrounding her to the ground. In the artist’s typical style, anatomy is elongated and distorted; legs seem impossibly crossed, fingers are bent at alarming angles and the skin of her face is being grotesquely stretched ‘like chewing gum’.ⁱ Schutz creates charged, exciting works - energetic brushstrokes and a thick application of paint give them a visceral impact that heighten the bodily, raw subject matter.

\n\n

‘‘Every painting has its own DNA – it has hints of previous works, but it ends up being its own thing.’’
\n—Dana Schutz

\n\n

Schutz frequently plays with perspective and proportion in her work; ‘I want my subjects and paintings to feel like they have space in front of the picture plane, that’s a specific interaction with the viewer’.ⁱⁱ A visceral exchange between subject and viewer is something Schutz achieves with ease: In her Face Eater series, we are rendered helpless as we watch crazed, abstracted faces attempt to devour themselves – cropped closely to amplify the horror. The warped depiction of anatomy in Gravity Fanatic’s which occupies most of the canvas, exaggerated with angular streaks of white tape and tiny objects, make us feel as if we are both looking down and up at the looming figure. Whilst Schutz’s compositions are often bizarre and busy, she demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of pictorial logic to provide structure within her work – the crossed arms and legs and angular lines of her body acts a central point of focus amid a complex narrative.

\n\n

\"\" — After William Hogarth, *Frontispiece to Clubbe’s Physiognomy (or the Weighing House),* circa 19^th Century, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Image: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Sarah Lazarus, 1891, 91.1.31

\n\n

A sardonic humour runs throughout Schutz’s corpus. In Gravity Fanatic, we are confronted with a subject, obsessed with the idea and effect of gravity, so much so that she secures herself and possessions to the floor. The arrangement of Schutz’s figures as a driving force of her narratives are both ‘entertaining and political’; an egalitarian means of parodying anyone and everyone.ⁱⁱⁱ In many of her other works, Schutz calls upon an amalgamation of political, cultural and art historical references to inform her narratives. Men’s Retreat (2005) depicts a Lord-of-the-Flies-style outing of George Bush’s cabinet in jungle reminiscent of a Henri Rousseau painting; a wry, farcical composition that could have been taken straight from a contemporary satirical magazine like Private Eye.

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Through these nods to current affairs, along with her dark, comedic pictorial style, Schutz assumes the role of a modern-day cartoonist. Satirical magazines such as Punch experienced their Golden Age during the 18^th and 19^th century, and rose to prominence for eye-catching, absurdist cartoons, bringing cynical humour to subjects that were largely more serious. Accomplished painters, such as William Hogarth, also moonlighted as cartoonists. The Weighing House is an 18^th century satirical engraving by Hogarth, which also uses gravity as a reference point, ridiculing the theory of Physiognomy – the practice of judging one’s character based upon physical attributes. Schutz’s art contributes to the continuing practice of questioning and reimagining mainstream media and news – a practice particularly important in an Internet age, that demonstrates her flair for critical thinking. Whilst she borrows from art history and current media, the result of Schutz’s bizarre compositions is not so straightforward; she creates a new canon for her subjects, mirroring the way events in the media are warped and mythologized on the internet.^iv

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\"\" — Salvador Dalí, *Daddy Longlegs of the Evening – Hope!,* 1940, Salvador Dalí Museum, Florida. Artwork:Artwork: © Salvador Dalí, Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation/DACS, London 2023

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Nevertheless, Schutz’s dark humour and bizarre narratives belie real and relatable expressions of human emotion. A common thread in historical and more recent interpretation of Surrealism, Schutz’s subjects are often representative of a darker side of human nature - in this case, obsession. The light-hearted titular use of Fanatic is incongruent with what appears to be a woman with a disturbing compulsion to keep herself grounded, mutilating her own body in the process. The exaggeration and distortion of Schutz’s subjects recalls Salvador Dalí’s contorted, molten imagery. In Daddy Longlegs of the Evening – Hope! bodies, instruments and landscape appear grotesquely stretched and distorted. Works like this were painted by Dalí as a way of visualising the horror and destruction of Europe through the rise of fascist regimes. Whilst some of the themes and emotions in Schutz’s compositions are imagined by the artist, they are manifested in a similar fashion.

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Schutz’s figures attain an almost sculptural quality; flesh is rendered loose and malleable, as if made of clay. This portrayal of something as universal as human skin, in a way that is completely unnatural, carves out an immediate undertone of eerie abnormality. The emotional stakes of Schutz’s works become heightened, as relatable anxieties are transformed into nightmarish imagery. Jörg Heiser argues that in the case of Gravity Fanatic, Schutz ‘translates these sculptural questions into neurosis’; the hidden anxieties of Schutz’s subjects manifest themselves in freakish deformations of the human body.^v Schutz visualises emotion in the physicality of her compositions, with eye-boggling bodies, thick impasto and bright palettes contributing to their all-encompassing nature.

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Collector’s Digest

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Dana Schutz is an American painter known for her striking works that combine abstraction and figuration to tell abnormal narratives.
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Since the completion of her MFA at Columbia University in 2002, Schutz has experienced remarkable success, having held frequent solo exhibitions in galleries and institutions across the world. She is represented by renowned contemporary galleries such as David Zwirner and Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin.
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She has been the subject of several career retrospectives, most recently this year at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk. Her work is held in the collection of Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Saatchi Gallery, London; and Museo d’arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, among others.
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ⁱ Katrin Wittneven, ‘Welcome to Neverland’, trans. Catherine Schelbert, Parkett, no. 75, 2005, p. 35.

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ⁱⁱ Benjamin Bruneau, ‘The Compressed Violence of Dana Schutz’, MOMUS, 19 October, 2015, online.

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ⁱⁱⁱ Susanne Figner, ‘Notes on the Grotesque Body’, in Veit Görner, Susanne Figner, Susanne Hudson, Dana Schutz: Demo, 2014, Cologne, p. 20.

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^iv Mei Chin, ‘Dana Schutz by Mei Chin’, BOMB, 1 April, 2006, online.

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^v Jörg Heiser, ‘BLINNG BLING, GRRR GRRR: POP AND PAINTING EAT THEMSELVES’, in Raphaela Platow, Katy Siegel and Jörg Heiser, Dana Schutz: Paintings 2002-2005, p. 81.

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34

Dana Schutz

Gravity Fanatic

Further Details

Full-Cataloguing

Dana Schutz