Eddie Martinez - 20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design Day Sale Hong Kong Tuesday, June 21, 2022 | Phillips

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  • “The cosmic hooks, the summoning of spirits, the virtuoso line, the command of colour and composition — it all adds up to its own kind of brilliance.” 
    —Dr. Lisa Fischman, Director of the Davis Museum on Eddie Martinez’s Mandala works

     


    The artist in his studio with a Mandala work behind, 2021

    Image Courtesy of Lévy Gorvy, Photo: Matthew Herrmann

     

     

    In 2017, Forbes spoke with Martinez about the inspiration behind his Mandala series of works, ahead of the artist’s first museum solo show, Ants at the Picknic, hosted by the Davis Museum in Boston later that year:

     

    Forbes: What inspired this exhibition?

     

    Eddie Martinez (EM): My assistant found these drawings of mandalas that I made in 2005 in a flat file and it totally rejuvenated my interest in them. And [Director] Lisa [Fischman] gave me a lot of freedom for what this exhibition could be. So I decided I wanted to revisit the mandalas and I started drawing them a lot. And then I started painting them. And that’s just what it became. I was really wanting to do them large scale, which made a lot of sense for an institution. And we went from there.

     

    Forbes: When did you start to gravitate towards mandalas and why?

     

    EM: When I was really young I thought I was a Buddhist, or something. But, you know. I wasn’t. I was always interested in meditation. I mean, now, I have a daily practice. I think I just liked the repetition. Also, they are really a container for shapes and marks. It’s something I’ve gravitated to over the past decade – this idea of the container. I used make these tabletop still lifes, where everything kind of fit into that rectangular shape. I also created a character - this other personality, or an alter ego, called Spirit Duder. And in the first Spirit Duder drawing—it’s in the catalogue—he's looking up at this floating mandala with crazy eyeballs. I don't know. It's something that stuck with me. 

     

    Forbes: I know that the creation of mandalas is a spiritual practice. Do you get a spiritual fulfillment from creating these, or is it separate from your personal spirituality?

     

    EM: I think the act of drawing and the act of painting definitely fill a spiritual place for me. There’s nothing intentional while making them - I don’t try to present any kind of spiritual association. But that said, having them here in this room in the Davis Museum, when we installed this show two weeks ago, they were hanging and the lighting wasn’t really ready yet, so it was kind of dim in here and I just sat and looked at them individually. And I had what could be considered a spiritual experience.

     

    Read more here. 

    • Provenance

      Timothy Taylor Gallery, London
      Acquired from the above by the present owner

114

Mandala #14

signed with the artist's initials 'Em.' on the reverse
silkscreen ink, oil and spray paint on canvas
213.4 x 182.6 cm. (84 x 71 7/8 in.)
Executed in 2017.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
HK$900,000 - 1,200,000 
€110,000-146,000
$115,000-154,000

Sold for HK$950,000

Contact Specialist

Danielle So
Specialist, Head of Day Sale
+852 2318 2027
danielleso@phillips.com

20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design Day Sale

Hong Kong Auction 21 June 2022