Gary Hume - Contemporary Art Evening Sale London Friday, October 17, 2008 | Phillips

Create your first list.

Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.

  • Provenance

    Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

  • Exhibited

    Hanover, Kestnergesellschaft, July, 2004; New York, Matthew Marks Gallery, 12 March - 30 April, 2005; Gary Hume: Karnival

  • Literature

    Exhibition catalogue, Kestnergesellschaft, Gary Hume: Karnival, Hanover, 2004 (illustrated) 

  • Catalogue Essay

    Gary Hume’s paintings have become synonymous for their peculiar, damaged beauty executed in immaculate elegance; we are presented with ultra gloss pastels on highly polished aluminum. In his more recent body of work the artist has began to employ dramatic use of negative space creating voids of the muted polished aluminum contrasting with the shine of the enamel figure. This present lot, Pink Nicola, is part of Hume’s interrogation of figurative abstraction, centralizing on the frailty of this figure, (that of the artist’s close friend), we are offered a portrait obliterated to the point of cruelty, yet we also see a towering pillar of a figure, isolated in her strength. It this particular dichotomy that makes Pink Nicola so intriguing, so inviting yet somewhat disturbing, we are reminded works by his predecessors Alberto Giacometti and Picasso. In particular we could think of Picasso’s seminal work le Mademoiselle de Avignon, focusing on deconstruction of the female figure in a manner that could be conceived as aggressive and violent yet executed refined and subtle precision that we can’t help but sympathize and idolize the figure simultaneously.

323

Pink Nicola

2004
Household gloss paint on aluminium.
198.1 x 149.8 cm. (78 x 59 in).

Estimate
£80,000 - 120,000 ‡♠

Contemporary Art Evening Sale

18 Oct 2008, 7pm
London