Provenance
Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris
Private Collection
Exhibited
New York, The New Museum, The Ungovernables, 2012 New Museum Triennial, February 15 - April 22, 2012, n.p. (illustrated)
New York, Public Art Fund, Danh Vo: We The People, May 17, 2014 - December 5, 2014
Literature
Holland Cotter, "Quiet Disobedience," New York Times, February 16, 2012 (illustrated)
Catalogue Essay
I wanted to do something that everyone had a relationship to, and make it a bit unfamiliar. It’s kind of like creating a Frankenstein that gets its own life.

An elegant and undulating patchwork of copper, conceptual artist Danh Vo’s We the people (detail), 2011, is as subtle as it is monumental. Part of the artist’s most ambitious project to date, the present lot is one of around 400 unique detail objects cast from an exact replica of the leviathan Statue of Liberty, an icon that has watched over New York Harbor for over 120 years. As much a symbol of New York City as it is of Western democracy, the dismembered goddess has been transformed into an impossible puzzle of gleaming abstractions. Danh Vo’s We the people project is a characteristic example of the artist’s sophisticated and nuanced interpretation of the Duchampian ready-made. A transplant from Vietnam to Denmark, Vo’s own history manifests, as it does for many, as a series of individual vignettes, discrete pieces of a puzzle, unified by the physical body present therein. Understanding this fragmented history and exploring it has been a constant motif throughout Vo’s oeuvre. Indeed, even in the production of We the people – the original sculpture was fabricated in France and erected in New York whereas Vo’s was fabricated in Shanghai, dissected, and installed the world over in private and public collections alike – Vo has established a continuity through disconnect. The physical, material beauty of We the people (detail) belies its tortured conceptual existence, and yet, this beauty is similarly integral to the nature of the work itself. The undulating folds of the original Statue’s robes both harken back to a time of Grecian and Roman democratic idealism and also seem to reference the welcoming nature of a mother’s nightgown. Monumental, personal, fluid and static, Vo’s We the people (detail) is an enigmatic and stunning work by one of the most intellectually rigorous artists working today.

14

Danh Vo

We the people (detail)

2011
copper
76 1/2 x 104 x 55 in. (194.3 x 264.2 x 139.7 cm)

Estimate
$200,000 - 300,000

Contact Specialist
Rebekah Bowling
Head of Sale
New York
+ 1 212 940 1250

New Now Evening Sale

New York Auction 29 February 2016 6pm

1
Korakrit Arunanondchai
Untitled (History Painting)
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $62,500
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2
John Gerrard
Lufkin (near Hugo, Colorado)
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $75,000
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3
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled (Black and White Butterfly 330)
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
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4
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $257,000
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5
KAWS
NYT
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $161,000
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6
Yayoi Kusama
Nets
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $62,500
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7
Elizabeth Peyton
Star, Elliott
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $209,000
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8
This lot is no longer available.
9
John Baldessari
Sediment: Leg and Shirt
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
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10
This lot is no longer available.
11
Seth Price
Untitled (Pearlescent White Jacket)
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $197,000
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12
Tim Noble and Sue Webster
$
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
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13
Yoshitomo Nara
Household Dog
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $185,000
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14
Danh Vo
We the people (detail)
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
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15
Nate Lowman
Orders From Corporate (Randall's Island?)
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
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16
Ugo Rondinone
ACHTERFEBRUARZWEITAUSENDUNDSIEBEN (February 8, 2007)
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
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17
This lot is no longer available.
18
Alex Israel
Untitled (Flat)
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
Sold for $221,000
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19
Neil Jenney
Atmosphere
Estimate $70,000 - 90,000
Sold for $100,000
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20
Hiroshi Sugimoto
Red Sea
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
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21
Thomas Struth
Todai-Ji Interior, Nara
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $110,000
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22
Ghada Amer
Grey Iman
Estimate $70,000 - 100,000
Sold for $81,250
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23
Michel Majerus
MoM block Nr. 88
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $43,750
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24
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25
Franz West
Divan (Prototype)
Estimate $70,000 - 100,000
Sold for $75,000
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26
Mark Grotjahn
Untitled
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
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27
Wade Guyton
Untitled
Estimate $180,000 - 220,000
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New Now Evening Sale

New York Auction 29 February 2016 6pm

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Provenance

Exhibited

Literature

Catalogue Essay

14

Danh Vo

We the people (detail)

New Now Evening Sale

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