Rosanna Widén
\nSenior Specialist, Head of Evening Sale
\n+44 20 7318 4060
\nrwiden@phillips.com
\n
\nOlivia Thornton
\nHead of 20th Century & Contemporary Art, Europe
\n+44 20 7318 4099
\nothornton@phillips.com
\n
\nclientserviceslondon@phillips.com

\n","artistInscription","signed and dated 'Mack 61' on the reverse","dimensions","130 x 105 cm (51 1/8 x 41 3/8 in.)","medium","aluminium on panel","sigEdtMan","Executed in 1961.","provenance","Carlo van den Bosch, Antwerp\r\nLenz Schönberg Collection, Germany (acquired from the above in 1970)\r\nContemporary Art Evening Auction Including Property From The Sammlung Lenz Schönberg, Sotheby’s, London, 10 February 2010, lot 1\r\nAcquired at the above sale by the present owner","literature","Dieter Honisch, Mack: Skulpturen 1953-1986, Düsseldorf, 1986, no. 552, p. 502 (illustrated)\r\nBożena Kowalska, 'Kolekcja Gerharda Lenza. Gerhard Lenz's Collection', Projekt. Sztuka wazualna i projektowanie visual art & design, no. 195, June 1990, pp. 7-11 (illustrated)\r\n'Zero: Die europäische Vision – 1958 bis heute. Sammlung Lenz Schönberg', Vernissage. Das Magazin für aktuelles Ausstellungsgeschehen 23, no. 223, April 2003, pp. 22-25 (illustrated)\r\n'Zero - Ausdruck des Neubeginns', Tirolerin. Die Illustrierte, 16 May 2003, p. 140 (illustrated)\r\n'RLB-Kunstbrücke verlängert Ausstellung \"ZERO – Die europäische Vision\" bis 9 Juni', Tiroler Tageszeitung, 30 May 2003, p. 7 (illustrated)\r\n‘Spirit des Neubeginns’, Econova. Wirtschaftsmagazin, May-June 2003, pp. 88-89 (illustrated)\r\nJelena Mandić, ‘Vrh suvreme europske umjetnosti’, Novi List, 7 January 2004, p. 57 (illustrated)\r\nRenata Margaretić Urlić and Darko Glavan, ‘Zbirka koja konkurira svim važnijim muzejima’, Dnevnik, 21 April 2004, p. 26 (illustrated)\r\n‘Europski projekt nove duhovnosti’, Fokus, 11 June 2004, p. 48 (illustrated)\r\nAnna and Gerhard Lenz, eds., The Zero Era. The Lenz Schönberg Collection: Living in Art, Vol. I, Ostfildern, 2009, no. MA-04, p. 100 (illustrated, p. 101)\r\nAnna and Gerhard Lenz, eds., Epoche Zero. Sammlung Lenz Schönberg. Leben in Kunst, Band 2, Ostfildern, 2009, no. MA-04, p. 205 (Zentrales Künstlerhaus am Krimwall, Moscow, 1989 installation view illustrated, pp. 103, 106; Galeria Zachęta, Warsaw, 1992 installation view illustrated, pp. 140-141; illustrated, p. 164; Museum der Moderne Salzburg, 2006 illustrated on the exhibition poster, p. 174)","exhibited","Frankfurt, Städtische Galerie im Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Das Städel zeigt: Beispiele aus der Sammlung Lenz, Kronberg, 28 November 1974 – 26 January 1975, no. 25, n.p. (illustrated)\r\nAntwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, Zero Internationaal Antwerpen, 1979 – 1980 \r\nSalzburg, Museum Carolino Augusteum, Eine europäische Bewegung: Bilder und Objekte aus der Sammlung Lenz Schönberg, 24 July – 13 October 1985\r\nMunich, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, ZERO. Vision und Bewegung. Werke aus der Sammlung Lenz Schönberg, 28 September – 6 November 1988, pp. 118, 187 (illustrated, p. 119)\r\nMoscow, Zentrales Künstlerhaus am Krimwall, Sammlung Lenz Schönberg: Eine europäische Bewegung in der bildenden Kunst von 1958 bis heute, 7 July – 3 September 1989, pp. 152, 256 (illustrated)\r\nWarsaw, Galeria Zachęta, Po Śladach Czasu - Poza Granice Przestrzeni. Kolekcja Lenza Schönberga, 27 February – 5 April 1992, p. 196\r\nWarsaw, Galeria Zachęta, Sammlung Lenz Schönberg. Aus der Stille der Zeit - über die Grenzen von Raum, 27 February – 5 April 1992, p. 152 (illustrated)\r\nInnsbruck, RLB Kunstbrücke, ZERO. Die europäische Vision – 1958 bis heute. Sammlung Lenz Schönberg, 8 April – 15 June 2003, p. 46 (illustrated, p. 47)\r\nZagreb, Muzej Suvremene Umjetnosti, ZERO. Die europäische Vision, 1958 bis heute. Sammlung Lenz Schönberg, 29 April – 20 June 2004, pp. 87, 138 (illustrated)\r\nMuseum der Moderne Salzburg, ZERO. Künstler einer europäischen Bewegung. Sammlung Lenz Schönberg 1956-2006, 21 January – 2 July 2006, p. 98 (illustrated, p. 99; illustrated on the exhibition poster)\r\nSchirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, OP ART, 17 February – 20 May 2007, pp. 238, 316 (illustrated, p. 239)\r\nHong Kong, Ben Brown Fine Arts, Heinz Mack: Colour, Light, Rhythm, 30 November 2011 – 20 January 2012, no. 9, pp. 24, 82 (illustrated, p. 25)","mainImagePath","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/179898_001.jpg","additionalImagePaths",[507],"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/179898_002.jpg","estimateSymbols",[510,511],"‡","♠","enhancedLotComponents",[514],{"_515":83,"_516":517,"_518":519,"_520":521,"_522":523},"isActive","componentType","RichText","componentId",12677,"title","DETAIL-HEADER-DISABLED 20633","componentItems",[524],{"_515":83,"_525":526,"_527":528},"componentItemId",16228,"htmlCaption","

\n\n

"My sculptures are new objects in space, light reflectors and instruments of movement. Time becomes perceptible in their rhythmic structures."
\n—Heinz Mack

\n\n

Unfolding in shimmering horizontal waves of highly reflective aluminium strips, Lamellen-Relief captures the utopian blend of science, technology, innovation, and aesthetic purity that defined the mid-century neo avant-garde ZERO group. Absorbing and impressive in its scale and visual effects, the work was created by one of ZERO’s founding members, Heinz Mack, in 1961 during a pivotal moment for group, just one year before its first institutional presentation held at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and at the peak of its evolution as one of the most significant avant-garde movements of the 20^th century.

\n\n

More than Zero

\n\n

Emerging from the chaos and destruction of the Second World War, many young European artists embraced the opportunity to remake the world. For Düsseldorf-based artists Heinz Mack and Otto Piene this meant moving in a radically new direction, away from both figurative traditions and the tendency towards Art Informel dominating the European avant-garde, embracing new and distinctly ‘modern’ materials and ‘incorporating technology into new forms of abstract and kinetic art.’ⁱ

\n\n

ZERO: Let us explore the stars – trailer, Stedelijk Museum, 2015.

\n\n

Founded by Mack and Piene in 1957, ‘Zero’ took its name from the internationally recognised countdown sequence or, as Piene put it later, ‘a zone of silence and of pure possibilities for a new beginning as at the countdown when rockets take off.’ⁱⁱMaking assiduous use of exhibitions, magazines, and new media such as television to disseminate their ideas, the German artists’ group rapidly expanded into an international phenomenon in its short existence, adding some of the most influential post-war artists including Lucio Fontana, Yves Klein, and Yayoi Kusama to its ranks.

\n\n

Underscoring an essential participatory element that drew these diverse approaches together, the group gained notoriety through a series of public exhibition events, notably the spectacular one-evening event ZERO – Edition, Exposition, Demonstration, where crowds gathered in front of Galerie Schmela in Düsseldorf’s Old Town in the July of 1961, the same year as the present work’s execution. Combining elements of performance and spectacle, the event captured the sense of energy and optimism percolating at the dawn of the space age, encapsulated by the release of Friedrich-Karl von Oppeln’s hot air balloon into the night sky above the crowded streets below. Anticipating the performances and ‘Happenings’ staged by the Fluxus group, the demonstration has become emblematic of the ZERO’s shared vision, their message of ‘media in and of itself’ and the ‘possibility of art-as-event.’ⁱⁱⁱ

\n\n

\"\" — Friedrich-Karl von Oppeln’s hot-air balloon outside Galerie Schmela, Düsseldorf, during *ZERO: Edition, Exposition, Demonstration*, July 5, 1961. Image: ZERO foundation, Inv-Nr: mkp.ZERO.1.V.201, Heinz Mack Estate, Düsseldorf, Photo: Paul Brandenburg

\n\n

Art in the Space Age

\n\n

Once held in the prestigious private Lenz Schönberg collection, the world’s most important collection of ZERO works, Lamellen-Relief presents an elegant distillation of some of the group’s key aesthetic concerns - especially in relation to light, time, motion, and the centrality of the viewer’s interaction with the work itself. An important example of Mack’s Early Metal Reliefs, it also represents a critical moment in the young artist’s maturation, extending the rhythmic striations of his early monochromatic painting into three dimensions. While the surface of these early paintings appeared to move and vibrate due to the arrangement of the artist’s marks in accordance with his concept of a new structural order of pictorial space which he termed ‘The New Dynamic Structure’, with Lamellen-Relief, Mack successfully activates the dynamic potential of his materials. Like feathered wings and ancient examples of Lamellar armour, the small overlapping aluminium plates are here laced together into horizontal rows, the shifting, reflective surface breaking into brilliant, fluctuating panels of light determined by the viewer’s perspective and position in relation to it.

\n\n

“One must—and this is not an exaggeration—keep in mind that we’re living in the atomic age, where everything material and physical could disappear from one day to another, to be replaced by nothing but the ultimate abstraction imaginable.”
\n—Yves Klein

\n\n

First discovered in the early decades of the 19^th century, aluminum was a quintessentially ‘modern’ material. A crucial resource during the First and Second World Wars, it was absolutely central to strategic developments in aviation, while its highly reflective surface and malleability lent themselves to a wide range of increasingly indispensable post-war mass-produced objects. Given its ubiquity and close conceptual connections to flight and modes of futuristic thinking, it is unsurprising that aluminum remains the material most closely associated with mid-century visions of the future.

\n\n

Although utterly of its time in this respect, in its poetic symbiosis of art and technology Lamellen-Relief also looks back to the integration of light and motion, art and machine-age technology in the kinetic works of pioneering artists as Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, and László Moholy-Nagy in the early decades of the 20^th century. One of the earliest examples of Light Art, Moholy-Nagy’s 1930 Light Prop for an Electric Stage or Light-Space Modulator as it would later be known offers an important precedent, its moving parts designed to create a dynamic series of reflections and shadows across its surrounding surfaces.

\n\n

\"\" — Left: László Moholy-Nagy, Lichtrequisit einer elektrischen Buehne (Light Prop for an Electric Stage), 1922-30 (reconstruction 1970), Photo, 1973 (Exhibition at the Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin). (Berlin-Bild). Image: akg-images / ullstein bild
\nRight: ‘The Race to Space’, poster (United States), ca. late 1950s. Image: Everett Collection, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo
\n

\n\n

Disrupting any reading of its surface as static and two-dimensional, Lamellen-Relief exemplifies the critical investigations into light and motion, space and time that has defined Mack’s practice since the 1950s. Executed at a critical moment in the artist’s career, the work is not only a defining piece of ZERO art, but exemplifies Mack’s pioneering approach to the viewer’s role in completing the art work, an approach that has shaped a generation of artists, including the immersive installations of Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliason. As Mack’s friend, fellow artist and co-founder of the Zero group Otto Piene emphatically defined it, ZERO is not a style, a group, or even a movement but ‘a point of view'.^iv

\n\n

Collector’s Digest

\n\n

\n\t
Exhibiting internationally since 1959, Heinz Mack has participated in over 300 exhibitions worldwide, with examples of his work held in over 130 public institutions including the Musée national d’art modern – Centre Pompidou, Paris; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Tate Collection, London; and the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, amongst others.
\n\t
\n\t
Once part of the Sammlung Lenz Schönberg – the largest collection of ZERO works in the world – the present work has exceptional provenance and was selected to represent the movement as the front cover image of the 2006 retrospective Zero. Künstler Einer Europäischen Bewegung, hosted by the Museum der Moderne in Salzburg. When it last appeared at auction in 2010, Lamellen-Relief set a new record for the artist's work.
\n\t
\n\t
The recipient of many awards and accolades, central themes of Mack’s work include light and motion, exemplified by the present work.
\n\t
\n\t
In recent years the ZERO movement has received increasing critical attention, a multi-year research project supported by the ZERO Foundation in Düsseldorf and resulting in a program of talks, publications, and exhibitions at some of the most prestigious institutions in the world including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and the Martin-Gropius Bau in Berlin.
\n\t

\n\n

\n\n\n

ⁱ Kwame Opam, ‘These rebels made art for the space age with light and flamethrowers’, The Verge, 12 October 2014, online.

\n\n

ⁱⁱ Otto Piene, quoted in Kwame Opam, ‘These rebels made art for the space age with light and flamethrowers’, The Verge, 12 October 2014, online.

\n\n

ⁱⁱⁱ Caroline Jones, ‘ZERO: Countdown to Tommorow, 1950s-60s: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York’, Artforum, March 2015, online.

\n\n

^ivOtto Piene, quoted in Group Zero (exh. cat.), Philedelphia, 1968, n.p.

\n","UK010123","auctionCurrency",{"_418":419,"_532":421},"currencySign","auction",{"_52":413,"_50":529,"_54":535,"_56":90,"_60":92,"_64":536,"_537":538,"_539":540,"_58":462,"_541":464,"_80":542,"_543":544,"_545":544,"_546":547,"_548":549,"_487":488,"_550":46,"_551":46,"_552":83,"_553":46,"_554":46,"_555":46,"_79":83,"_556":46,"_557":46,"_486":83,"_558":46,"_559":83,"_560":46,"_561":46,"_562":46,"_82":83,"_481":46,"_482":83,"_563":564,"_1178":1179,"_100":1217,"_1224":1225,"_68":1271,"_530":1273,"_106":1274,"_1275":1141,"_84":1276,"_62":1277},"20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale","2023-03-02T17:00:00.000000Z","lowestEstimate",20000,"highestEstimate",9000000,"saleTypeId","https://assets.phillips.com/image/upload/t_Website_AuctionPageHero/v1677591856/auctions/UK010123/UK010123.jpg","contactEmail","IHallam@phillips.com","conditionRequestEmail","auctionDetails","

Admission to this sale is by ticket only.
\nPlease email tickets@phillips.com
\n
\nTITANS OF THE 20TH CENTURY FROM THE COLLECTION OF MARCEL BRIENT
\nView & Download e-Catalogue >
\n
\nPlease note, effective from 1st March 2023, Phillips’ Buyer’s Premium rates have been adjusted.
\nThe new rates can be viewed on the Buyer’s Premium page and apply to this auction.
\n

\n","auctionDetailsSmall","London Auction 2 March 2023","enableHighlightsView","enableOnlineCatalogue","endSale","hideSoldLots","isChineseTranslate","isExhibition","isMixedAuction","makeLive","showArtCollector","showBuyButton","showCatalogueDownloadLink","showInquireButton","showPrintCatalogueSection","lots",[565,598,630,661,692,717,744,774,800,832,860,889,922,932,956,984,1006,1026,1050,1073,1100,1119,1149],{"_410":566,"_52":413,"_414":567,"_453":588,"_455":456,"_459":460,"_461":462,"_463":464,"_465":589,"_467":229,"_468":590,"_591":592,"_470":593,"_472":594,"_473":474,"_475":46,"_476":46,"_477":595,"_343":596,"_480":46,"_481":46,"_482":83,"_483":46,"_484":46,"_485":83,"_486":83,"_411":229,"_457":170,"_597":229},"179897",{"_416":568,"_426":571},{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":569,"_424":570},120000,80000,[572,573,576,579,582,585],{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":569,"_424":570},{"_418":430,"_420":430,"_422":574,"_424":575},135000,89700,{"_418":434,"_420":435,"_422":577,"_424":578},136000,90800,{"_418":439,"_420":440,"_422":580,"_424":581},144000,96300,{"_418":444,"_420":445,"_422":583,"_424":584},194000,129000,{"_418":449,"_420":450,"_422":586,"_424":587},1130000,755000,"https://www.phillips.com/detail/ben-sledsens/179897","1-73XUPH","Wanderer with Dog","imagePath","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/179897_001.jpg",24258,"Ben Sledsens",60000,203200,"weightedLotNumber",{"_410":599,"_52":413,"_414":600,"_453":621,"_455":456,"_459":460,"_461":462,"_463":464,"_465":622,"_467":385,"_468":623,"_591":624,"_470":625,"_472":626,"_473":474,"_475":46,"_476":46,"_477":627,"_343":628,"_480":46,"_481":46,"_482":83,"_483":46,"_484":46,"_485":83,"_486":83,"_411":385,"_457":629,"_597":385},"180222",{"_416":601,"_426":604},{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":602,"_424":603},280000,180000,[605,606,609,612,615,618],{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":602,"_424":603},{"_418":430,"_420":430,"_422":607,"_424":608},314000,202000,{"_418":434,"_420":435,"_422":610,"_424":611},318000,204000,{"_418":439,"_420":440,"_422":613,"_424":614},337000,217000,{"_418":444,"_420":445,"_422":616,"_424":617},452000,291000,{"_418":449,"_420":450,"_422":619,"_424":620},2640000,1700000,"https://www.phillips.com/detail/claire-tabouret/180222","1-73XUQA","L’Attente","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/180222_001.jpg",17052,"Claire Tabouret",130000,241300,"2",{"_410":631,"_52":413,"_414":632,"_453":652,"_455":456,"_459":460,"_461":462,"_463":464,"_465":653,"_467":98,"_468":654,"_591":655,"_470":656,"_472":657,"_473":474,"_475":46,"_476":46,"_477":658,"_343":659,"_480":46,"_481":46,"_482":83,"_483":46,"_484":46,"_485":83,"_486":83,"_411":98,"_457":660,"_597":98},"183057",{"_416":633,"_426":635},{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":634,"_424":538},30000,[636,637,640,643,646,649],{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":634,"_424":538},{"_418":430,"_420":430,"_422":638,"_424":639},33600,22400,{"_418":434,"_420":435,"_422":641,"_424":642},34100,22700,{"_418":439,"_420":440,"_422":644,"_424":645},36100,24100,{"_418":444,"_420":445,"_422":647,"_424":648},48500,32300,{"_418":449,"_420":450,"_422":650,"_424":651},283000,189000,"https://www.phillips.com/detail/angela-heisch/183057","1-73XUQM","Egg White Blue","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/183057_001.jpg",23586,"Angela Heisch",14000,76200,"3",{"_410":662,"_52":413,"_414":663,"_453":684,"_455":456,"_459":460,"_461":462,"_463":464,"_465":685,"_467":188,"_468":686,"_591":687,"_470":688,"_472":689,"_473":474,"_475":46,"_476":46,"_477":602,"_343":690,"_480":46,"_481":46,"_482":83,"_483":46,"_484":46,"_485":83,"_486":83,"_411":188,"_457":691,"_597":188},"179985",{"_416":664,"_426":667},{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":665,"_424":666},600000,400000,[668,669,672,675,678,681],{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":665,"_424":666},{"_418":430,"_420":430,"_422":670,"_424":671},681000,454000,{"_418":434,"_420":435,"_422":673,"_424":674},684000,456000,{"_418":439,"_420":440,"_422":676,"_424":677},726000,484000,{"_418":444,"_420":445,"_422":679,"_424":680},980000,653000,{"_418":449,"_420":450,"_422":682,"_424":683},5700000,3800000,"https://www.phillips.com/detail/loie-hollowell/179985","1-73XUR1","Split Orbs in purple, ochre, and brown","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/179985_001.jpg",17649,"Loie Hollowell",635000,"4",{"_410":693,"_52":413,"_414":694,"_453":708,"_455":456,"_459":460,"_461":462,"_463":464,"_465":709,"_467":72,"_468":710,"_591":711,"_470":712,"_472":713,"_473":474,"_475":46,"_476":46,"_477":714,"_343":715,"_480":46,"_481":46,"_482":83,"_483":46,"_484":46,"_485":83,"_486":83,"_411":72,"_457":716,"_597":72},"182006",{"_416":695,"_426":697},{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":425,"_424":696},150000,[698,699,701,703,704,706],{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":425,"_424":696},{"_418":430,"_420":430,"_422":432,"_424":700},169000,{"_418":434,"_420":435,"_422":437,"_424":702},170000,{"_418":439,"_420":440,"_422":442,"_424":603},{"_418":444,"_420":445,"_422":447,"_424":705},242000,{"_418":449,"_420":450,"_422":452,"_424":707},1410000,"https://www.phillips.com/detail/joel-mesler/182006","1-73XURA","Untitled (Play the Hits)","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/182006_001.jpg",19346,"Joel Mesler",105000,533400,"5",{"_410":718,"_52":413,"_414":719,"_453":736,"_455":456,"_459":460,"_461":462,"_463":464,"_465":737,"_467":738,"_468":739,"_591":740,"_470":741,"_472":742,"_473":474,"_475":46,"_476":46,"_477":602,"_343":715,"_480":46,"_481":46,"_482":83,"_483":46,"_484":46,"_485":83,"_486":83,"_411":738,"_457":743,"_597":738},"181609",{"_416":720,"_426":721},{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":665,"_424":666},[722,723,726,727,730,733],{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":665,"_424":666},{"_418":430,"_420":430,"_422":724,"_424":725},673000,449000,{"_418":434,"_420":435,"_422":670,"_424":671},{"_418":439,"_420":440,"_422":728,"_424":729},722000,481000,{"_418":444,"_420":445,"_422":731,"_424":732},970000,646000,{"_418":449,"_420":450,"_422":734,"_424":735},5670000,3780000,"https://www.phillips.com/detail/shara-hughes/181609","1-73XUSB",6,"The Unsteady Eddy","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/181609_001.jpg",3633,"Shara Hughes","6",{"_410":745,"_52":413,"_414":746,"_453":764,"_455":456,"_459":765,"_461":462,"_463":464,"_465":766,"_467":767,"_468":768,"_591":769,"_470":770,"_472":771,"_473":474,"_475":46,"_476":46,"_477":772,"_480":46,"_481":46,"_482":46,"_483":46,"_484":46,"_485":83,"_486":83,"_411":767,"_457":773,"_597":767},"180974",{"_416":747,"_426":750},{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":748,"_424":749},1500000,1000000,[751,752,754,755,758,761],{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":748,"_424":749},{"_418":430,"_420":430,"_422":753,"_424":586},1690000,{"_418":434,"_420":435,"_422":620,"_424":586},{"_418":439,"_420":440,"_422":756,"_424":757},1800000,1200000,{"_418":444,"_420":445,"_422":759,"_424":760},2420000,1620000,{"_418":449,"_420":450,"_422":762,"_424":763},14100000,9400000,"https://www.phillips.com/detail/cecily-brown/180974","BoughtIn","1-73XUSR",7,"Skulldiver II","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/180974_001.jpg",6832,"Cecily Brown",700000,"7",{"_410":775,"_52":413,"_414":776,"_453":791,"_455":456,"_459":460,"_461":462,"_463":464,"_465":792,"_467":793,"_468":794,"_591":795,"_470":796,"_472":797,"_473":474,"_475":46,"_476":46,"_477":714,"_343":798,"_480":46,"_481":46,"_482":83,"_483":46,"_484":46,"_485":83,"_486":83,"_411":793,"_457":799,"_597":793},"178529",{"_416":777,"_426":778},{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":425,"_424":696},[779,780,783,784,787,788],{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":425,"_424":696},{"_418":430,"_420":430,"_422":781,"_424":782},224000,168000,{"_418":434,"_420":435,"_422":437,"_424":702},{"_418":439,"_420":440,"_422":785,"_424":786},241000,181000,{"_418":444,"_420":445,"_422":447,"_424":705},{"_418":449,"_420":450,"_422":789,"_424":790},1890000,1420000,"https://www.phillips.com/detail/caroline-walker/178529","1-73XUTE",8,"Threshold","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/178529_001.jpg",15942,"Caroline Walker",927100,"8",{"_410":801,"_52":413,"_414":802,"_453":822,"_455":456,"_459":460,"_461":462,"_463":464,"_465":823,"_467":824,"_468":825,"_591":826,"_470":827,"_472":828,"_473":474,"_475":46,"_476":46,"_477":829,"_343":830,"_480":46,"_481":46,"_482":83,"_483":46,"_484":46,"_485":83,"_486":83,"_411":824,"_457":831,"_597":824},"179849",{"_416":803,"_426":805},{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":540,"_424":804},7000000,[806,807,810,813,816,819],{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":540,"_424":804},{"_418":430,"_420":430,"_422":808,"_424":809},10110000,7860000,{"_418":434,"_420":435,"_422":811,"_424":812},10180000,7920000,{"_418":439,"_420":440,"_422":814,"_424":815},10750000,8360000,{"_418":444,"_420":445,"_422":817,"_424":818},14510000,11290000,{"_418":449,"_420":450,"_422":820,"_424":821},84380000,65630000,"https://www.phillips.com/detail/willem-de-kooning/179849","1-73XUTR",9,"[no title]","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/179849_001.jpg",11037,"Willem de Kooning",4900000,6065500,"9",{"_410":833,"_52":413,"_414":834,"_453":850,"_455":456,"_459":460,"_461":462,"_463":464,"_465":851,"_467":852,"_468":853,"_591":854,"_470":855,"_472":856,"_473":474,"_475":46,"_476":46,"_477":857,"_343":858,"_480":46,"_481":46,"_482":83,"_483":46,"_484":46,"_485":83,"_486":83,"_411":852,"_457":859,"_597":852},"180977",{"_416":835,"_426":836},{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":749,"_424":772},[837,838,841,844,846,847],{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":749,"_424":772},{"_418":430,"_420":430,"_422":839,"_424":840},1120000,785000,{"_418":434,"_420":435,"_422":842,"_424":843},1140000,795000,{"_418":439,"_420":440,"_422":757,"_424":845},842000,{"_418":444,"_420":445,"_422":760,"_424":586},{"_418":449,"_420":450,"_422":848,"_424":849},9440000,6610000,"https://www.phillips.com/detail/albert-oehlen/180977","1-73XUUZ",11,"Ascension","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/180977_001.jpg",6899,"Albert Oehlen",490000,1076500,"11",{"_410":861,"_52":413,"_414":862,"_453":880,"_455":456,"_459":460,"_461":462,"_463":464,"_465":881,"_467":144,"_468":882,"_591":883,"_470":884,"_472":885,"_473":474,"_475":46,"_476":46,"_477":886,"_343":887,"_480":46,"_481":46,"_482":83,"_483":46,"_484":46,"_485":83,"_486":83,"_411":144,"_457":888,"_597":144},"182445",{"_416":863,"_426":865},{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":864,"_424":423},500000,[866,867,869,872,875,877],{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":864,"_424":423},{"_418":430,"_420":430,"_422":868,"_424":613},562000,{"_418":434,"_420":435,"_422":870,"_424":871},566000,339000,{"_418":439,"_420":440,"_422":873,"_424":874},597000,358000,{"_418":444,"_420":445,"_422":876,"_424":677},806000,{"_418":449,"_420":450,"_422":878,"_424":879},4690000,2810000,"https://www.phillips.com/detail/michel-majerus/182445","1-73XUVB","Express","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/182445_001.jpg",3179,"Michel Majerus",210000,444500,"12",{"_410":890,"_52":413,"_414":891,"_453":912,"_455":456,"_459":460,"_461":462,"_463":464,"_465":913,"_467":914,"_468":915,"_591":916,"_470":917,"_472":918,"_473":474,"_475":46,"_476":46,"_477":919,"_343":920,"_480":46,"_481":46,"_482":83,"_483":46,"_484":46,"_485":83,"_486":83,"_411":914,"_457":921,"_597":914},"182249",{"_416":892,"_426":895},{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":893,"_424":894},850000,650000,[896,897,900,903,906,909],{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":893,"_424":894},{"_418":430,"_420":430,"_422":898,"_424":899},965000,738000,{"_418":434,"_420":435,"_422":901,"_424":902},969000,741000,{"_418":439,"_420":440,"_422":904,"_424":905},1030000,787000,{"_418":444,"_420":445,"_422":907,"_424":908},1390000,1060000,{"_418":449,"_420":450,"_422":910,"_424":911},8080000,6180000,"https://www.phillips.com/detail/john-chamberlain/182249","1-73XUVY",13,"Sprayed Myopia","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/182249_001.jpg",9642,"John Chamberlain",455000,1379000,"13",{"_410":392,"_52":413,"_414":923,"_453":454,"_455":456,"_459":460,"_461":462,"_463":464,"_465":466,"_467":412,"_468":469,"_591":504,"_470":471,"_472":389,"_473":474,"_475":46,"_476":46,"_477":478,"_343":479,"_480":46,"_481":46,"_482":83,"_483":46,"_484":46,"_485":83,"_486":83,"_411":412,"_457":458,"_597":412},{"_416":924,"_426":925},{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":423,"_424":425},[926,927,928,929,930,931],{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":423,"_424":425},{"_418":430,"_420":430,"_422":431,"_424":432},{"_418":434,"_420":435,"_422":436,"_424":437},{"_418":439,"_420":440,"_422":441,"_424":442},{"_418":444,"_420":445,"_422":446,"_424":447},{"_418":449,"_420":450,"_422":451,"_424":452},{"_410":933,"_52":413,"_414":934,"_453":948,"_455":456,"_459":765,"_461":462,"_463":464,"_465":949,"_467":950,"_468":951,"_591":952,"_470":953,"_472":954,"_473":474,"_475":46,"_476":46,"_477":886,"_480":46,"_481":46,"_482":46,"_483":46,"_484":46,"_485":83,"_486":83,"_411":950,"_457":955,"_597":950},"182453",{"_416":935,"_426":936},{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":864,"_424":423},[937,938,940,942,944,946],{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":864,"_424":423},{"_418":430,"_420":430,"_422":939,"_424":431},563000,{"_418":434,"_420":435,"_422":941,"_424":436},567000,{"_418":439,"_420":440,"_422":943,"_424":441},599000,{"_418":444,"_420":445,"_422":945,"_424":446},808000,{"_418":449,"_420":450,"_422":947,"_424":451},4700000,"https://www.phillips.com/detail/joe-bradley/182453","1-73XUXF",15,"Day Rite","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/182453_001.jpg",8273,"Joe Bradley","15",{"_410":957,"_52":413,"_414":958,"_453":974,"_455":456,"_459":460,"_461":462,"_463":464,"_465":975,"_467":976,"_468":977,"_591":978,"_470":979,"_472":980,"_473":474,"_475":46,"_476":46,"_477":981,"_343":982,"_480":46,"_481":46,"_482":83,"_483":46,"_484":46,"_485":83,"_486":83,"_411":976,"_457":983,"_597":976},"182248",{"_416":959,"_426":960},{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":772,"_424":864},[961,962,965,967,969,971],{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":772,"_424":864},{"_418":430,"_420":430,"_422":963,"_424":964},786000,561000,{"_418":434,"_420":435,"_422":966,"_424":941},794000,{"_418":439,"_420":440,"_422":968,"_424":665},841000,{"_418":444,"_420":445,"_422":586,"_424":970},807000,{"_418":449,"_420":450,"_422":972,"_424":973},6600000,4710000,"https://www.phillips.com/detail/jeff-koons/182248","1-73XUY1",16,"Cherubs","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/182248_001.jpg",11031,"Jeff Koons",350000,482600,"16",{"_410":985,"_52":413,"_414":986,"_453":998,"_455":456,"_459":460,"_461":462,"_463":464,"_465":999,"_467":1000,"_468":1001,"_591":1002,"_470":1003,"_472":1004,"_473":474,"_475":46,"_476":46,"_477":595,"_343":659,"_480":46,"_481":46,"_482":83,"_483":46,"_484":46,"_485":83,"_486":83,"_411":1000,"_457":1005,"_597":1000},"183152",{"_416":987,"_426":988},{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":569,"_424":570},[989,990,992,993,995,996],{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":569,"_424":570},{"_418":430,"_420":430,"_422":574,"_424":991},89800,{"_418":434,"_420":435,"_422":577,"_424":578},{"_418":439,"_420":440,"_422":580,"_424":994},96100,{"_418":444,"_420":445,"_422":583,"_424":584},{"_418":449,"_420":450,"_422":586,"_424":997},754000,"https://www.phillips.com/detail/grayson-perry/183152","1-73XUYP",17,"Gilbert and George in China","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/183152_001.jpg",5033,"Grayson Perry","17",{"_410":1007,"_52":413,"_414":1008,"_453":1017,"_455":456,"_459":460,"_461":462,"_463":464,"_465":1018,"_467":1019,"_468":1020,"_591":1021,"_470":1022,"_472":1023,"_473":474,"_475":46,"_476":46,"_477":602,"_343":1024,"_480":46,"_481":46,"_482":83,"_483":46,"_484":46,"_485":83,"_486":83,"_411":1019,"_457":1025,"_597":1019},"183778",{"_416":1009,"_426":1010},{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":665,"_424":666},[1011,1012,1013,1014,1015,1016],{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":665,"_424":666},{"_418":430,"_420":430,"_422":670,"_424":671},{"_418":434,"_420":435,"_422":673,"_424":674},{"_418":439,"_420":440,"_422":676,"_424":677},{"_418":444,"_420":445,"_422":679,"_424":680},{"_418":449,"_420":450,"_422":682,"_424":683},"https://www.phillips.com/detail/damien-hirst/183778","1-73XUZD",18,"Briareus","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/183778_001.jpg",10541,"Damien Hirst",457200,"18",{"_410":1027,"_52":413,"_414":1028,"_453":1041,"_455":456,"_459":460,"_461":462,"_463":464,"_465":1042,"_467":1043,"_468":1044,"_591":1045,"_470":1046,"_472":1047,"_473":474,"_475":46,"_476":46,"_477":981,"_343":1048,"_480":46,"_481":46,"_482":83,"_483":46,"_484":46,"_485":83,"_486":83,"_411":1043,"_457":1049,"_597":1043},"182251",{"_416":1029,"_426":1030},{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":772,"_424":864},[1031,1032,1034,1036,1038,1039],{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":772,"_424":864},{"_418":430,"_420":430,"_422":1033,"_424":939},789000,{"_418":434,"_420":435,"_422":1035,"_424":941},793000,{"_418":439,"_420":440,"_422":1037,"_424":943},838000,{"_418":444,"_420":445,"_422":586,"_424":945},{"_418":449,"_420":450,"_422":1040,"_424":947},6580000,"https://www.phillips.com/detail/howard-hodgkin/182251","1-73XUZV",19,"Summer Rain","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/182251_001.jpg",68,"Howard Hodgkin",292100,"19",{"_410":1051,"_52":413,"_414":1052,"_453":1064,"_455":456,"_459":460,"_461":462,"_463":464,"_465":1065,"_467":1066,"_468":1067,"_591":1068,"_470":1069,"_472":1070,"_473":474,"_475":46,"_476":46,"_477":981,"_343":1071,"_480":46,"_481":46,"_482":83,"_483":46,"_484":46,"_485":83,"_486":83,"_411":1066,"_457":1072,"_597":1066},"179674",{"_416":1053,"_426":1054},{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":772,"_424":864},[1055,1056,1057,1059,1061,1062],{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":772,"_424":864},{"_418":430,"_420":430,"_422":840,"_424":964},{"_418":434,"_420":435,"_422":843,"_424":1058},568000,{"_418":439,"_420":440,"_422":845,"_424":1060},602000,{"_418":444,"_420":445,"_422":586,"_424":945},{"_418":449,"_420":450,"_422":849,"_424":1063},4720000,"https://www.phillips.com/detail/jean-dubuffet/179674","1-73XV01",20,"Site aléatoire avec 3 personnages","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/179674_001.jpg",8668,"Jean Dubuffet",838200,"20",{"_410":1074,"_52":413,"_414":1075,"_453":1090,"_455":456,"_459":460,"_461":462,"_463":464,"_465":1091,"_467":1092,"_468":1093,"_591":1094,"_470":1095,"_472":1096,"_473":474,"_475":46,"_476":46,"_477":1097,"_343":1098,"_480":46,"_481":46,"_482":83,"_483":46,"_484":46,"_485":83,"_486":83,"_411":1092,"_457":1099,"_597":1092},"183240",{"_416":1076,"_426":1078},{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":1077,"_424":748},2500000,[1079,1080,1081,1082,1085,1087],{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":1077,"_424":748},{"_418":430,"_420":430,"_422":451,"_424":753},{"_418":434,"_420":435,"_422":451,"_424":753},{"_418":439,"_420":440,"_422":1083,"_424":1084},3010000,1810000,{"_418":444,"_420":445,"_422":1086,"_424":759},4040000,{"_418":449,"_420":450,"_422":1088,"_424":1089},23650000,14190000,"https://www.phillips.com/detail/banksy/183240","1-73XV10",21,"Home Sweet Home","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/183240_001.jpg",8845,"Banksy",1050000,1742000,"21",{"_410":1101,"_52":413,"_414":1102,"_453":1111,"_455":456,"_459":460,"_461":462,"_463":464,"_465":1112,"_467":1113,"_468":1114,"_591":1115,"_470":1116,"_472":1117,"_473":474,"_475":46,"_476":46,"_477":857,"_343":858,"_480":46,"_481":46,"_482":83,"_483":46,"_484":46,"_485":83,"_486":83,"_411":1113,"_457":1118,"_597":1113},"183104",{"_416":1103,"_426":1104},{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":749,"_424":772},[1105,1106,1107,1108,1109,1110],{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":749,"_424":772},{"_418":430,"_420":430,"_422":839,"_424":840},{"_418":434,"_420":435,"_422":842,"_424":843},{"_418":439,"_420":440,"_422":757,"_424":845},{"_418":444,"_420":445,"_422":760,"_424":586},{"_418":449,"_420":450,"_422":848,"_424":849},"https://www.phillips.com/detail/anselm-kiefer/183104","1-73XV17",22,"Walhalla","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/183104_001.jpg",10454,"Anselm Kiefer","22",{"_410":1120,"_52":413,"_414":1121,"_453":1139,"_455":456,"_459":460,"_461":462,"_463":464,"_465":1140,"_467":1141,"_468":1142,"_591":1143,"_470":1144,"_472":1145,"_473":474,"_475":46,"_476":46,"_477":1146,"_343":1147,"_480":46,"_481":46,"_482":83,"_483":46,"_484":46,"_485":83,"_486":83,"_411":1141,"_457":1148,"_597":1141},"182039",{"_416":1122,"_426":1123},{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":570,"_424":595},[1124,1125,1128,1131,1134,1136],{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":570,"_424":595},{"_418":430,"_420":430,"_422":1126,"_424":1127},90100,67600,{"_418":434,"_420":435,"_422":1129,"_424":1130},90700,68000,{"_418":439,"_420":440,"_422":1132,"_424":1133},95800,71900,{"_418":444,"_420":445,"_422":584,"_424":1135},97000,{"_418":449,"_420":450,"_422":1137,"_424":1138},752000,564000,"https://www.phillips.com/detail/sarah-ball/182039","1-73XV1X",23,"Elliot","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/182039_001.jpg",26824,"Sarah Ball",42000,120650,"23",{"_410":1150,"_52":413,"_414":1151,"_453":1169,"_455":456,"_459":460,"_461":462,"_463":464,"_465":1170,"_467":77,"_468":1171,"_591":1172,"_470":1173,"_472":1174,"_473":474,"_475":46,"_476":46,"_477":1175,"_343":1176,"_480":46,"_481":46,"_482":83,"_483":46,"_484":46,"_485":83,"_486":83,"_411":77,"_457":1177,"_597":77},"181502",{"_416":1152,"_426":1155},{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":1153,"_424":1154},85000,65000,[1156,1157,1159,1161,1164,1166],{"_418":419,"_420":421,"_422":1153,"_424":1154},{"_418":430,"_420":430,"_422":1132,"_424":1158},73200,{"_418":434,"_420":435,"_422":581,"_424":1160},73700,{"_418":439,"_420":440,"_422":1162,"_424":1163},102000,77900,{"_418":444,"_420":445,"_422":1165,"_424":714},137000,{"_418":449,"_420":450,"_422":1167,"_424":1168},799000,611000,"https://www.phillips.com/detail/danica-lundy/181502","1-73XV26","Bonefire","https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/181502_001.jpg",23428,"Danica Lundy",48000,107950,"24","highlights",[1180,1185,1189,1193,1197,1201,1205,1209,1213],{"_591":1181,"_520":1182,"_1183":1184},"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/3b_hi.jpg","

CAROLINE WALKER Threshold, 2014

\n","version","1675867298",{"_591":1186,"_520":1187,"_1183":1188},"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/7a_hi.jpg","

WILLEM DE KOONING [no title], 1984

\n","1676409655",{"_591":1190,"_520":1191,"_1183":1192},"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/34_hi.jpg","

MICHEL MAJERUS Express, 2001

\n","1677592058",{"_591":1194,"_520":1195,"_1183":1196},"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/35_hi.jpg","

JEFF KOONS Cherubs, 1991

\n","1677592360",{"_591":1198,"_520":1199,"_1183":1200},"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/36_hi.jpg","

ALBERT OEHLEN Ascension, 2001

\n","1677592447",{"_591":1202,"_520":1203,"_1183":1204},"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/28_hi.jpg","

ANSELM KIEFER Walhalla, 2016

\n","1676562192",{"_591":1206,"_520":1207,"_1183":1208},"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/29_hi.jpg","

HOWARD HODGKIN Summer Rain, 2002

\n","1676562213",{"_591":1210,"_520":1211,"_1183":1212},"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/210_hi.jpg","

JOHN CHAMBERLAIN Sprayed Myopia, 1988

\n","1676562234",{"_591":1214,"_520":1215,"_1183":1216},"https://assets.phillips.com/auctions/UK010123/310_hi.jpg","

LOIE HOLLOWELL Split Orbs in purple, ochre, and brown, 2021

\n","1677592623",{"_102":1218,"_104":1219,"_106":1220,"_117":1221},"2023-02-23T00:00:00.000000Z","2023-03-03T00:00:00.000000Z",{"_108":109,"_110":111,"_112":113,"_114":90,"_115":116},[1222,1223],{"_120":159,"_122":123,"_124":125,"_126":127},{"_120":129,"_122":121,"_124":130,"_126":127},"articles",[1226,1250,1260],{"_1227":1228,"_1229":231,"_1230":1231,"_520":1232,"_1233":1234,"_1235":1236,"_1237":1238,"_1239":1240,"_1241":474,"_1242":1243,"_467":474,"_1244":1245,"_1246":1247,"_1248":1249},"coverUrl","https://flockler.com/thumbs/sites/889/comp_gallery2-4d0c0124-aafb-4de3-8fa1-980c6b9c7a33_s600x0.jpg","section","summary","Poet Max Blagg on Howard Hodgkin and John Chamberlain.","An Unexpected Pairing","body","

Howard Hodgkin, Summer Rain, 2002 – 2013. View lot >
\nJohn Chamberlain, Sprayed Myopia, 1988. View lot >

\n\n

Phillips invited the celebrated poet to share his insights on two masters featured in our 20^th Century and Contemporary Evening Sale upcoming in London on 2 March.
\n
\n

\n\n

Howard Hodgkin once observed that "People are afraid of pictures which have visible emotions in them. They feel calmer in front of pictures which are placid." His usually small, gemlike paintings do radiate a certain calm, in the Baudelairean sense of 'luxe, calme et volupté'. Always painted on wood, these works are front loaded with emotion and sensuality. John Chamberlain's ferocious looking steel sculptures, reassigned to artistic purpose from salvaged motor vehicles, would seem diametrically opposed to the operatic lushness of Hodgkin's paintings, yet place this unlikely pairing together in a room, and their inapposite points seem to easily commune, disparities dissolved.

\n\n

The two artists and their respective works are certainly unlikely bedfellows; Hodgkin a highly erudite and rather austere Englishman, Chamberlain a U.S. Navy vet and wild reveler who originally used the G.I. Bill to study hairdressing, in order, he said, to meet more girls. This was before his epiphany in Larry Rivers' backyard in Southampton, when he ripped the chromium fenders off a vehicle abandoned there, beat them into shape by driving over them with his truck, and thus created his first sculpture in steel, which he named Shortstop.

\n\n

Chamberlain was fond of saying that he got his sense of color from de Kooning, and 'gesture' from Franz Kline, two major exponents of the AbEx ethos, both of whom were friends and drinking companions. It's difficult to imagine Hodgkin carousing with them at the Cedar Bar while Pollock was busy tearing the door off the lavatory, and yet the threads of his expressionistic work intertwine comfortably with the more explosive outbursts of the New York AbEx crew.

\n\n

Hodgkin's sensuous, intense paintings, infused with his love of late 19th-century French painters like Degas and Vuillard, also reflect his passion for the vivid light and colors of India, a country he visited frequently throughout his life. These tropical colors contrast sharply with the white glare of the studio in which he worked, full of light and devoid of any decoration.

\n\n

Many of Chamberlain's turbulent steel pieces, whose gaudy colors exude a jingle jangly urban rhythm, were produced in the sylvan setting of Shelter Island, where Chamberlain finally settled after sojourns in New York City, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Connecticut, and Florida. The vast studio on Shelter Island is a step away from his living quarters, and both areas were filled with the materials he used in his art, which was never limited to disassembled cars — he also produced works in sculpted sponge, in paper and aluminum foil, each piece crumpled and squeezed until the form pleased the artist's eye, often guided by his early love of poetry, which he had studied at Black Mountain College with Robert Creeley and Charles Olson. "If I have a room full of parts, they are like a lot of words, and I have to take one piece and put it next to another and find out if it really fits."

\n\n

Hodgkin on the other hand wryly observed that "I never try to understand anything I do — it's a waste of time." But, he was also a lover of poetry, although he preferred more traditional English poems. The painting Green Thought in a Green Shade takes its name from Andrew Marvell’s 17th-century poem The Garden, “Annihilating all that’s made / To a green thought in a green shade.” In certain of his paintings a raw sensuality punches through the abstraction to evoke remembered moments as powerfully as one of Proust's madeleines. He is an artist who redefined the way we look at the world, bringing passion and memory into the language of painting. Both Hodgkin and Chamberlain shied away from describing or explaining their art, afraid that words would only limit the viewer’s mind and imagination. The sense of powerful feelings and emotion coursing through the work of both is more than enough to energize a room and anyone standing in it.

\n\n

About Max Blagg /

\n\n

Max Blagg, born in England, has lived in NYC since 1971. Long recognized as a highly respected poet, visual artist, and performer on the New York art and literary scene, he has appeared at innumerable venues including the Kitchen, Guggenheim Museum, Parrish Museum, St. Marks Church, The National Arts Club, and Bowery Poetry Club. Blagg has published several volumes of poetry and prose internationally and in the U.S. with Carpe Diem Press, Paradigm Press, and Shallow Books. Blagg's collaborations with artists, including Alex Katz, Richard Prince, Nan Goldin, Keith Sonnier, Jack Pierson, and Larry Clark, have culminated in books, artworks, and videos. His artworks have been exhibited at The Parrish Museum, Luring Augustine, Exhibition A, and collected by artists Richard Prince, Larry Clark, Nate Lowman, and Adam McEwen. Four of his "flyers" from 1984 were included in the Nan Goldin exhibition, MoMA, NYC, 2016. A poem/painting collaboration with Richard Prince was included in the Richard Prince Retrospective, Guggenheim Museum, NYC, 2007.

\n\n

Auction /

\n\n

20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale
\n2 March, 5pm
\n30 Berkeley Square, London (map)

\n\n

\nViewing /

\n\n

23 February – 2 March
\nMonday – Saturday, 10am – 6pm
\nSunday, 12pm – 6pm

\n\n

Discover More from 20th Century & Contemporary Art >

\n\n

Recommended Reading

\n\n

New Talent Speaks: Five emerging artists to benefit Foster Pride >

\n\n

Wave After Wave: Paul Laster on six women artists on the contemporary crest >

\n\n

\n","publishDate","2023-02-20T17:35:37.000000Z","authorCredit","Don Carroll","coverPosX",50,"coverPosY","articleUrl","https://www.phillips.com/article/115035458/an-unexpected-pairing","auctionEditorialID",1743,"editorialID",4123,"flocklerID",115035458,{"_1227":1251,"_1229":231,"_1230":1252,"_520":1253,"_1233":1254,"_1235":1255,"_1237":1238,"_1239":1240,"_1241":474,"_1242":1256,"_467":229,"_1244":1257,"_1246":1258,"_1248":1259},"https://flockler.com/thumbs/sites/889/young-dekooning-b33d52c3-53ea-4735-8e15-d427303b6ae1_s600x0.jpg","A reflection on the late great Willem de Kooning by Anthony Haden-Guest.","On a Very Good Day","

The artist Willem de Kooning as a young man, August 1953, East Hampton. Photo by Tony Vaccaro/Getty Images.

\n\n

Phillips invited elder statesman of the art world, Anthony Haden-Guest to take the long view of the life and career of Willem de Kooning — whose monumental triumph [no title] of 1984 features in our 20th Century & Contemproary Evening Sale in London on 2 March.
\n
\n

\n\n

Willem de Kooning traveled from Holland to the United States as a stowaway, made it to New York in 1926, and soon, the 22 year old was putting bread on the table by painting houses, doing illustrations, and making displays for department stores as he worked on his art. In this he was doubly gifted, both at making incisive figurative drawings and painting abstractions, and such was his need to make art that he gave up that Depression rarity — a paying job — to work for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the federal arts project, so as to be near working artists. There he was an assistant to Fernand Léger and, crucially, grew close to Arshile Gorky, through whom he learned how to absorb what he needed from Picasso’s Cubism, without being crushed by the maestro’s heft and reach.

\n\n

De Kooning shortly became part of the emergence of Abstract Expressionism, the movement which would be swiftly accepted as having enabled New York to replace Paris as global capital of the contemporary art world. The AbEx group included Mark Rothko, Clifford Still, Barnett Newman, and Franz Kline, so it was hardly low on talent, but de Kooning and Jackson Pollock had soon emerged as contenders for leading roles. Then, as was humanly inevitable, came the sniping as to which deserved the number one spot; sniping in which both, from time to time, participated.

\n\n

Their differences went deeper than manners of painthandling. When Hans Hofmann, the German AbEx artist, asked Pollock if he worked from nature, Pollock riposted “I am nature.” When de Kooning was explaining why he so liked the Hamptons in a letter to friends, he wrote: “For a painter like me it is much better to be surrounded by a small nature. Places like the Grand Canyon would frighten me to death.”

\n\n

That was just a coincidence of phrasing, but it reflects the fact that the swirling planes on a Pollock canvas appear to have been executed with a deliberate indifference to the long-standing norms of composition, however these are the norms in which de Kooning was well schooled and used to his own remarkable ends. “De Kooning blew open the Cubist grid, changing its mode from structural to fluid,” in the words of the late New Yorker critic Peter Schjeldahl, a writer with un uncanny gift for getting into an artist’s head and brush hand, “De Kooning is to classical Cubism as flying is to walking.”

\n\n

In 1950 de Kooning painted Excavations, a tremendous canvas, interpreted by his fellow AbExes, as a direct challenge to Pollock. This was one of the four de Koonings that Alfred Barr presented at the Venice Biennale in 1953. Three years later Pollock died, drunkenly crashing his car in Springs, New York. “It’s over. I’m number one,” de Kooning said at the funeral.

\n\n

De Kooning settled down to decades of making abstractions infused with a sense of the real, works which could seem crowded, but each of which was singularly resolved. He matched Picasso and Matisse for longevity, but his progress was very different from either. Matisse’s final work, his paper cut-outs, were well received. Picasso’s last canvases were expressively Picassoid, indeed controversially so, and it took a while before they got critical recognition and market acceptance.

\n\n

The changes in the paintings of de Kooning’s last period were more striking than either. These spare, pure canvases are at once serene and high energy, alive with looping, form-defining lines, and always achieving a deeply satisfying resolution; they take abstraction to places where it has never been. In his old age, de Kooning retained a magic wrist such as few others, and had decades of craft moves embedded in his head.

\n\n

“Pollock may be our greatest artist,” wrote Carter Ratcliff in The Fate of a Gesture. “Some have nominated Jasper Johns or Andy Warhol for that position. Undoubtedly, though, our greatest painter is de Kooning.” Peter Schjeldahl wrote, “The art of painting does not get more exciting than Willem de Kooning on a good day.” This painting was made on one of his best.

\n\n

\n\n

Willem de Kooning, [no title], 1984. 20th Century and Contemporary Art Evening Sale, London.
\nEstimate: £7,000,000–9,000,000. View lot >
\n
\n

\n\n

Anthony Haden-Guest is a writer, cartoonist, art critic, and frequent contributor to publications across the art and culture spheres. An elder statesman of the art scene, his books include TRUE COLORS: The Real Life of the Art World and The Last Party: Studio 54, Disco and the Culture of the Night, along with collections of verse, cartoonery, and critique. He lives and works in New York and London.

\n\n

Auction /

\n\n

20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale
\n2 March, 5pm
\n30 Berkeley Square, London (map)

\n\n

\nViewing /

\n\n

23 February – 2 March
\nMonday-Saturday 10am – 6pm
\nSunday 12pm – 6pm

\n\n

Discover More from 20th Century & Contemporary Art >

\n\n

Recommended Reading

\n\n

New Talent Speaks: Five emerging artists to benefit Foster Pride >

\n\n

Wave After Wave: Paul Laster on six women artists on the contemporary crest >

\n\n

\n","2023-02-16T20:06:58.000000Z","https://www.phillips.com/article/114705140/the-perfect-day",1744,4119,114705140,{"_1227":1261,"_1229":231,"_1230":1262,"_520":1263,"_1233":1264,"_1235":1265,"_1237":1266,"_1239":1240,"_1241":474,"_1242":1267,"_467":385,"_1244":1268,"_1246":1269,"_1248":1270},"https://flockler.com/thumbs/sites/889/lead-565b4840-7232-4125-a5e8-8f32a7a68c46_s600x0.jpg","Photography is essential to the process of five artists in our upcoming London Auctions.","The Painter’s Lens","

Caroline Walker, Threshold, 2014. 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, London.

\n\n

With source material ranging from archival photographs to photographic portraits of one’s own community, we explore how five figurative artists working today employ photography in their practice to pose important questions about childhood, gender, and race in contemporary culture.

\n\n

Sarah Ball

\n\n

\n\n

Sarah Ball, Elliot, 2020. 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, London.

\n\n

Sarah Ball works primarily from found imagery — photographic portraits borrowed from newspapers, social media, and historical archives documenting immigration and criminality. As such, she approaches her paintings a step removed from her sitters, endowing her portraits with an air of detached anonymity which in turn encourages viewers to search deeply in their faces for these hidden narratives. As is typical of Ball’s spellbinding portraits, Elliot is titled after its sitter, a recurring subject in Ball’s work and one of the faces found through her photographic research. Closely cropped and set against a softly flattened, void space, the square format engaged here suggests the vernacular of studio photography, photobooth portraits, and even the rigid framing of the Instagram grid.
\n
\nStemming from an early interest in illustration and graphic design, Ball gradually honed the economic approach to form used to such powerful effect in the arrangement of crisp, flattened, monochromatic shapes at play in Elliot. Rather than cluttering her compositions with symbolically charged details, Ball’s paintings are radically reduced to better focus our attention on the most defining characteristics of her subjects. In this way, her strikingly clear portraits capture both a physical likeness and something more essential. The artist explains that she might be initially drawn to the source photograph by the small aesthetic details her subjects use to present themselves; but she focuses our attention beyond these visual markers. This method elicits an empathetic response in viewers, in a manner that at once recalls the denuded settings favored by Dutch and Flemish Old Masters and the cool psychological focus of Lucian Freud’s meticulous portraits.

\n\n

Claire Tabouret

\n\n

\n\n

Claire Tabouret, L’Attente, 2015. 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, London.

\n\n

At once haunting and immediately engaging, Tabouret’s painted characters are inspired by photographs, some taken from her personal archive and others from anonymous shots collected during her research. As Tabouret eloquently describes, in restoring something lost or otherwise absent from these source images, the painting emerges as “a palliative to everything I am feeling that isn’t actually visible in the photograph.” Tabouret’s figures appear suspended in space and time, ghostly impressions that seem to bring us into a direct and intimate relationship with history.
\n
\nImmersed in a seductive, phosphorescent light, L’Attente portrays a group of costumed children lined up in two rows. She arranges them closely together in the shallow pictorial space, stacking them in a tight, vertical format in a manner that visually recalls the more rigid configuration favored by studio photography. The figures are seen head-on, in a direct but hermetic attitude, confronting the viewer with a powerful and disarming gaze. As stated by the artist, the children she represents “have a particular mood — they are not sad, but rather solemn, serious. There is latent violence and anger in their eyes.” The use of historical photographs in her process aligns with the artist’s approach to painting — placing us in the middle of an unfolding narrative that feels both recognizable and foreign. It leaves the impression that we’re being welcomed into the past but are unable to enter it.

\n\n

Caroline Walker

\n\n

\n\n

Caroline Walker, Threshold, 2014. 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, London.

\n\n

Threshold is a late work from Caroline Walker’s series In Every Dream Home. Working exclusively with women, Walker developed a rather distinct approach to her compositions during this period. Having found the right location, she hired actresses and models to spend time in the space with her, posing and photographing them before returning to her studio to work from these carefully staged images. Repeatedly seen in the same luxurious residential setting, the paintings feature a recurring cast of women whom we glimpse in moments of unguarded stillness, the passage of time propelling them through a set of familiar domestic and leisure activities.
\n
\nWidely regarded as one of the most technically accomplished figurative artists of her generation, Walker’s paintings privilege the female gaze. They use domestic environments to pose questions around looking and being looked at, the slippery boundary between public behavior and private space, and the relationship between the spaces that we occupy and the kind of narratives that unfold in them. Threshold, is framed by dense, overhanging foliage, and depicts two women dressed in identical orange swimsuits lying head-to-head at the edge of an outdoor swimming pool. Distinctively, their faces are hidden by broad-rimmed, black sunhats. Mirroring each other, both trail an arm languorously in the water. The strange symmetry of Walker’s careful arrangement of their pose and attire echoes in the doubled reflection of the pool, which is reinforced by the strict symmetry of the alternating panels of oak and glass behind them. Walker’s pool paintings recall David Hockney’s but carry us further into a kind of narrative disquiet that is difficult to place, but that undoubtably calls on cinematic and photographic reference points.

\n\n

\nAmani Lewis

\n\n

\n\n

Amani Lewis, Star and Be, 2021. 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, London.

\n\n

Photography serves as the conduit for the expressive truths of Amani Lewis’ work, which frequently retells the stories of their own Baltimore community on the terms of its lived identities. Beginning with a photographic image, they then manipulate their source material, often applying contour lines and other digital effects. The resulting images are then transferred to canvas, and painterly techniques are applied with a variety of media to build out the surface texture. The otherworldly effect of this process shifts the viewer’s perception from questions of a perceived external reality to a more nuanced appreciation of a subject’s inner life.

\n\n

As the artists explains, these portraits “have to do with following the lines and characteristics of my subject’s body that makes them the person who they are — while also mapping the lineage of that person to the likeness of a topographical map.” Most often working directly with members of their community as sitters, Amani Lewis’ subjects are treated as equal partners in the artistic process. This is clear in the immediately arresting canvas Star and Be. Here, the viewer is invited into a private interior moment shared between the two figures. The boundaries of media are so intricately blurred that we lose sight of where photography ends, and painting and collage begin. A deeply physical, yet ostensibly digitized image, the figures appear strong, on their own terms, yet open, exposed, and intimate. The enigmatic expressions of the characters are difficult to discern, but their stories are felt.

\n\n

Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe

\n\n

\n\n

Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, Dapper II, 2020. 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, London.

\n\n

African artist Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe’s powerful portraits of black subjects begin with photography. Born and raised in Ghana, he was fascinated at an early age by the detailed hand-painted movie posters in cinemas, which led to his interest in painting. Searching for his own voice and artistic style after graduating from the Ghanatta College of Art and Design, he took a brief break from painting and studied photography. It was during this time that he met his wife, a photography enthusiast, and relocated with her to Portland, Oregon, in 2017. Confronted with the realities of American racism in Portland, he turned his work towards themes of empowerment. In 2020, the artist told Juxtapoz magazine, “I try to find other Black people that are living here. Talk to them. Photograph them. And then try to capture everything that is there in their personality and put it in a still image.”
\n
\nHis portraits are celebrations of blackness and reclamations of cultural dignity. His work frequently includes bright color in the clothes adorning his figures, as well as in thick impasto backgrounds. These colors, at times reminiscent of Ghanian Kente cloth, are often set against the tonal greyscale palate used to render the skin tones of his subjects. Suggestive of black-and-white photography, this virtuosic contrast draws our gaze to the majesty of the lives depicted. With its purple background executed in thick paint and its depiction of resplendent patterned cloth, Dapper II exemplifies the powerful effectiveness of this approach.

\n\n

Auction /

\n\n

20th Century & Contemporary Art, London

\n\n

Evening Sale
\n2 March, 5pm GMT
\n30 Berkeley Square, London (map)

\n\n

Day Sale
\n3 March, 1pm GMT
\n30 Berkeley Square, London (map)

\n\n

\nViewing /

\n\n

23 February – 3 March
\nMonday-Saturday 10am – 6pm
\nSunday 12pm – 6pm

\n\n

Discover More from 20th Century & Contemporary Art >

\n\n

Recommended Reading

\n\n

A Life of Living with Art: Personal insights on collecting from Jimmy Belilty himself >

\n\n

On a Very Good Day: A reflection on the late great Willem de Kooning by Anthony Haden-Guest >

\n\n

\n","2023-02-23T04:00:13.000000Z","Jesse Limbacher","https://www.phillips.com/article/115281680/the-painters-lens-contemporary-art-auction-london-caroline-walker-sarah-ball",1751,4129,115281680,[1272],{"_71":229,"_73":230,"_75":231},{"_418":419,"_532":421},{"_108":109,"_110":111,"_112":113,"_114":90,"_115":116},"totalLotCount","1-70484K","https://www.phillips.com/auction/UK010123","messageBanners",[],"Heinz Mack - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, London Thursday, March 2, 2023 at GMT | Phillips","isPreview",[1283,1285,1292,1295,1297,1299,1301,1303,1306,1308,1311,1328,1329],{"_520":1284},"Heinz Mack 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale",{"_397":398,"_399":1286,"_401":1287,"_1288":1289,"_1290":1291},"preload","https://dist.phillips.com/auction-assets/UK010123/179898_001.jpg?fit=cover&optimize=medium&width=1302","as","image","imageSrcSet","https://dist.phillips.com/auction-assets/UK010123/179898_001.jpg?bg-color=0&pad=0&fit=bounds&height=400&width=120 120w,\n https://dist.phillips.com/auction-assets/UK010123/179898_001.jpg?fit=cover&offset-x=50&offset-y=100&height=300&quality=80 200w,\n https://dist.phillips.com/auction-assets/UK010123/179898_001.jpg?bg-color=ffffff&pad=0&fit=bounds&height=550&optimize=medium&width=605 367w,\n https://dist.phillips.com/auction-assets/UK010123/179898_001.jpg?fit=cover&offset-x=50&offset-y=100&height=700&optimize=medium 467w,\n https://dist.phillips.com/auction-assets/UK010123/179898_001.jpg?fit=crop&offset-x=50&offset-y=100&height=730 487w,\n https://dist.phillips.com/auction-assets/UK010123/179898_001.jpg?fit=cover&offset-x=50&offset-y=100&width=750 750w,\n https://dist.phillips.com/auction-assets/UK010123/179898_001.jpg?fit=cover&offset-x=50&offset-y=100&optimize=medium&width=868 868w,\n https://dist.phillips.com/auction-assets/UK010123/179898_001.jpg?fit=cover&offset-x=50&offset-y=100&width=928 928w,\n https://dist.phillips.com/auction-assets/UK010123/179898_001.jpg?fit=cover&optimize=medium&width=1302 1302w,\n https://dist.phillips.com/auction-assets/UK010123/179898_001.jpg?bg-color=0&pad=0&fit=bounds&disable-upscale&height=4000&optimize=medium&width=2000 1500w",{"_364":1293,"_404":1294},"keywords","Phillips Auctioneers LLC, auction, Lot, Heinz Mack, London Auction 2 March 2023",{"_364":468,"_404":1296},"Discover Heinz Mack's Lamellen-Relief featured in Phillips' 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale Auction in London. Browse, bid, and explore art, design, and luxury at Phillips.",{"_364":1298,"_404":1284},"twitter:title",{"_364":1300,"_404":1296},"twitter:description",{"_364":1302,"_404":504},"twitter:image",{"_1304":1305,"_404":1284},"property","og:title",{"_1304":1307,"_404":1296},"og:description",{"_1304":1309,"_404":1310},"og:image","https://assets.phillips.com/t_Website_CuratedAuction_SingleCell_NoPad_dev2/auctions/UK010123/179898_001.webp",{"_1312":1313},"script:ld+json",{"_355":356,"_360":1314,"_364":1315,"_1316":392,"_11":393,"_468":469,"_1289":1317,"_1318":1319,"_1321":1322},"Product","Heinz Mack - 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale","sku",[504],"brand",{"_360":1320,"_364":389},"Brand","offers",{"_360":1323,"_1324":425,"_1325":419,"_1326":1327,"_11":393},"Offer","price","priceCurrency","availability","https://schema.org/SoldOut",{"_397":398,"_399":400,"_401":393,"_106":90},{"_364":403,"_404":1330},"app-id=397496674","actionData","errors"]

More than Zero

Art in the Space Age

Collector’s Digest

Willem de Kooning, [no title], 1984. 20th Century and Contemporary Art Evening Sale, London.\nEstimate: £7,000,000–9,000,000. View lot >\n\n

Sarah Ball

Sarah Ball, Elliot, 2020. 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, London.

Claire Tabouret

Claire Tabouret, L’Attente, 2015. 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, London.

Caroline Walker

Caroline Walker, Threshold, 2014. 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, London.

\nAmani Lewis

Amani Lewis, Star and Be, 2021. 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, London.

Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe

Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, Dapper II, 2020. 20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, London.

Willem de Kooning, [no title], 1984. 20th Century and Contemporary Art Evening Sale, London.
\nEstimate: £7,000,000–9,000,000. View lot >
\n
\n

14

Heinz Mack

Lamellen-Relief

Further Details

Full-Cataloguing

Heinz Mack