Emma Webster - New Now London Wednesday, December 6, 2023 | Phillips

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  • Emma Webster’s disquieting, painterly works present us with a distorted view of the natural world. In Background’s Backdrop we see skeletal looking trees emerging from an otherwise barren landscape, growing in unnatural angles, and casting dramatically sweeping shadows. Painted in stark, monochromatic tones that fade into the soft yellow of the crepuscular sky, Webster’s virtuous command over light and shadow is on full display: forms are exaggerated and diminished, both familiar and unreal at once they twist, stretch, and distort across the surface of the work. They dance and flicker as if illuminated by candlelight.

     

    This eerie atmosphere is heightened by the incongruous way both foreground and background interact – the shallow spatial depth effects how shadows fall, curving up and away from their material forms as if against a painted stage curtain, instead of lying flat as we would expect. This is a deliberate choice made by Webster that reflects her unique creative practice: scenes are first constructed digitally, before being lit using theatre-style lighting to create dioramas from which she copies her compositions. The involvement of the digital in rendering visions of the natural world is a dichotomy Webster is continually interested in, pushing the boundaries of traditional landscape painting, and blurring the lines between the figurative and the abstract. 

     

    Backgound’s Backdrop was painted for the artist’s first solo exhibition in London, and her first exhibition with Carl Kostyál between March and April 2021 – it also featured Baptism, which was sold in our London Evening Sale in October this year. Titled Weltlandschaft, the exhibition explored a 16th century Germanic genre of painting of the same name that depicted vast, imaginary landscapes supposedly through God’s-eye. Bringing this forward to the 21st century, Webster replaces the viewpoint of God, with the viewpoint of a manmade, non-sentient computer. The effect is completely unique, and positions Webster as one of the most innovative painters working today, continuing the well-established tradition of landscape painting whilst also reimagining it for a contemporary audience.

     

    Receiving her BA from Stanford University and her MFA from Yale, American-born Emma Webster is represented by Carl Kostyál and, more recently, Perrotin. She has held solo exhibitions in London, Brussels, New York, Los Angeles, and Tokyo, and has been included in numerous group exhibitions at prestigious institutions such as Institute of Contemporary Art Miami and Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. 

    • Provenance

      Carl Kostyál, London
      Acquired from the above by the present owner

    • Exhibited

      London, Carl Kostyál, Emma Webster: Weltlandschaft, 11 March - 5 April 2021

6

Background’s Backdrop

signed and dated '"Background's Backdrop" 2020 E Webster Emma Webster' on the reverse
oil on linen
168.2 x 210 cm (66 1/4 x 82 5/8 in.)
Painted in 2020.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
£60,000 - 80,000 

Sold for £130,810

Contact Specialist

Charlotte Gibbs
Associate Specialist, Head of New Now
+44 20 7901 7993
CGibbs@phillips.com
 

New Now

London Auction 6 December 2023