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“I've always sort of thought of [my works] as being... at the end of the day, when I'm off the planet, it will be like an encyclopedia of the strange course of my life.”
— Hernan BasThe Southern Gothic
Growing up in a small backwater town in upstate Florida, a place that American artist Hernan Bas described as living in an episode of the X-Files, the artist enjoyed a unique childhood that was littered with paranormal sightings and other bizarre encounters with the unearthly. These formative years, coupled with an affinity for the nefarious yet decadent writings of Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe and Oscar Wilde, fomented a practice that displays a penchant for morbidity, isolation and off-kilter humour that are made manifest in compositions weave together stories of adolescent adventures and the paranormal with classical poetry, religious stories, mythology and literature.
Despite being in the contemporary spotlight for years now, Bas has always sought to dodge the bright lights of Miami’s burgeoning art scene, away from its Wynwood art district and the annual hordes of Basel. He treats the city’s ascendance in the art world constellation with ambivalence, and moved to Detroit in 2010 where he owns a studio, before returning to Florida at the beginning of the pandemic. Bas’ oeuvre could be defined by his androgynous dandy aesthetic, where men and boys of various ages engage in acts and rituals of courtship, love and death, the mannered ballads of heightened emotion. These visions are both alluring and ominous, in which his figures occupy the liminal boundaries of a man’s progression through life, what Bas calls the ‘fag limbo’ — projecting the 21st century’s answer to Ganymede and Tadzioi.
Installation shot of the present lot (right) at Frederic Snitzer Gallery, Miami, Boys in Peril?, 2013 However, the artist finds conflict in the traditional labelling of his oneiric compositions, explaining as such: ‘I don't like to think of it as portraiture at all. I've been quoted as describing it as the state of where you don't really know what or who you are. Or back to literature, a Catcher in the Rye type of thing. It's all there. And I've always been drawn to that sort of in-between. I mean, no one wants to read a book where the character is so easily understood and defined.’ ii. Though here in the present lot, Bas takes a decidedly more macabre tone, one that delves further into the psychotropic.
A Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Fantasy
“My work has nothing to do with urban decay. What I was intrigued by was the fact was there were all these ‘haunted’ houses.”
— Hernan BasWho Told Them We Were Coming? initially strikes you as a commentary on urban decay, with the angular row of houses that crown the composition appearing more like the razor-sharp mandible of the Cthulhu. Yet the artist’s fascination lay more in the product rather than the process of the deindustrialisation he witnessed in Detroit, drawn to the abandoned, ‘haunted’ houses that lined the former capital of the automotive industry.
Charles Ephraim Burchfield, Gateway to September, 1946-1956 Swinging the double-edged sword that is his practice, elegance and desolation are balanced in Bas’ sumptuous rendering of colour and form; a balance that recalls the peculiar forms of the American modernist, Charles Burchfield. The figure to the right of the composition is found isolated and enveloped by the cacophony of bleeding tones, ethereal beings, and an ever-encroaching phalanx of creaking mansions. In this work Bas projects, a sinister vision of an existential danger, the cause, effect and outcome left ambiguous. Bas alludes to a clairvoyant dimension within his painting, a supernatural presence that he denotes as such: ‘Duchamp put it that painting is a form of automatic writing. You're not super conscious of what you're doing. There's an element of magic to painting’iii.
Within this composition, the artist triggers feelings of nostalgia for shared childhood fantasies and coming of age adventures. As such, it is a stage of life shrouded in uncertainty and malaise, a mood reinforced through Bas’ choice of colour palette. The tones remain noticeably desaturated and overcast with grey hues, comparable to a pervasive veil of angst that looms over our very being, both internally and externally, which is in turn signified by the house and exterior surroundings. Dark crooked houses in the background juxtaposes the warm reds and greenery in the foreground, further adding to a sense of cognitive dissonance. A prism of coded desire and self-discovery, the current work is representative of Bas’ much explored theme of introspective reveries.
The lone figure in the foreground is not given particular motion or expression, positioning himself as a substitute for the viewer, allowing the whole piece to become a contemplative and engaging viewing experience; there is no explicit indication as to what the scene is seeking to convey. As Bas describes:
“I've always pictured my figures as being in a choose-your-own-adventure book, and the person looking at the painting can choose where the story is going.”
— Hernan BasCollector’s Digest
Hernan Bas is a key figure within the world of contemporary art, and has held numerous successful solo exhibitions in recent years. This includes at the Rubell Museum in Miami, which opened on 18 November 2020 and closes soon on 12 December 2021; Creature Comforts at Perrotin in Paris (17 October 2020 – 30 January 2021); Venetian Blind at Victoria Miro in Venice (8 February – 14 March 2020); and TIME LIFE at Lehmann Maupin in New York (7 November 2019 – 4 January 2020).
Bas was honoured with a retrospective last year, Choose Your Adventure at the Yuz Museum in Shanghai, marking Bas’ debut in China.
His works are held in numerous prestigious public collections around the world, including: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Saatchi Collection, London; Samuso: Space for Contemporary Art, Seoul; Rubell Family Collection, Miami; and the Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Modern Art, and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
i Hernan Bas, quoted in artist biography on the Galerie Perrotin website, online
ii Hernan Bas, quoted in Evan Pricco, ‘Hernan Bas: A Certain Southern Gothic’, Juxtapoz, online
iii Hernan Bas, quoted in Kate Abbey-Lambertz, ‘Hernan Bas, Painter, Talks Growing Up In Haunted Florida, Working In Detroit’, Huffington Post, 11 April 2012, online
Provenance
Frederic Snitzer, Miami
Acquired from the above by the present ownerExhibited
Miami, Fredric Snitzer, Hernan Bas: Boys in Peril?, 12 April - 27 May 2013
Literature
Matt Price, Martyn Richard Coppell and Dung Ngo, eds., Hernan Bas, New York, 2014, pp. 260, 273 (illustrated, p. 261)
Artist Biography
Hernan Bas
Hernan Bas (b.1978) is a contemporary American painter who lives and works in Miami. His paintings are influenced by the romantic and decadent legacies of 18th and 19th century art, literature, poetry, and religion. These influences result in canvases that are complex and highly detailed and often portray characters, typically young male figures, nestled among flora and fauna.
Hernan Bas received a degree from the New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida in 1996. Solo exhibitions of Bas’ work have been curated by the Rubell Museum, Miami, Yuz Museum, Shanghai, and Space, K, Seoul. Bas’ artwork is found in permanent collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada, and Carré d'Art - Musée d'Art Contemporain, Nîmes, France.
5
Who Told Them We Were Coming?
signed with the artist's initials, titled and dated 'HB 2013 "who told them we were coming?"' on the reverse
oil on canvas
183 x 152 cm. (72 x 59 7/8 in.)
Painted in 2013.
Estimate
HK$4,000,000 - 6,000,000
€486,000-728,000
$513,000-769,000
Sold for HK$3,528,000
Charlotte Raybaud
Specialist, Head of Evening Sale
+852 2318 2026
CharlotteRaybaud@phillips.com
20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale
Hong Kong Auction 22 June 2022
1
Julie Curtiss
Funky Boots
Estimate HK$600,000 - 800,000
Sold for HK$1,071,000
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2
Jamian Juliano-Villani
Hand's Job
Estimate HK$400,000 - 600,000
Sold for HK$819,000
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3
Lucy Bull
8:50
Estimate HK$1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Sold for HK$11,382,000
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4
Scott Kahn
Soundview
Estimate HK$900,000 - 1,400,000
Sold for HK$4,032,000
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5
Hernan Bas
Who Told Them We Were Coming?
Estimate HK$4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold for HK$3,528,000
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6
Shara Hughes
Pleasure House
Estimate HK$3,000,000 - 5,000,000
Sold for HK$6,542,000
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7
Loie Hollowell
Linked Lingam in Red and Blue
Estimate HK$1,800,000 - 2,800,000
Sold for HK$3,024,000
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8
Anna Weyant
Chest
Estimate HK$500,000 - 700,000
Sold for HK$4,158,000
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9
George Condo
Transparent Female Forms
Estimate HK$25,000,000 - 35,000,000
Sold for HK$36,550,000
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10
This lot is no longer available.
11
Matthew Wong
Pink Wave
Estimate HK$16,000,000 - 26,000,000
Sold for HK$22,635,000
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12
David Hockney
Painted Landscape (Or Red and Blue Landscape)
Estimate HK$16,000,000 - 24,000,000
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13
Ed Ruscha
Spied Upon Scene: Window
Estimate HK$3,500,000 - 5,500,000
Sold for HK$3,150,000
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14
Huang Yuxing
Pearl Shore
Estimate HK$1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for HK$3,024,000
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15
This lot is no longer available.
16
Nicolas Party
Two Portraits
Estimate HK$6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Sold for HK$6,542,000
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17
George Condo
The Strangers
Estimate HK$5,000,000 - 6,500,000
Sold for HK$5,670,000
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18
Ernie Barnes
Life After Sundown
Estimate HK$1,500,000 - 2,500,000
Sold for HK$6,048,000
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19
Javier Calleja
1971
Estimate HK$3,500,000 - 5,500,000
Sold for HK$4,032,000
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20
Yoshitomo Nara
Untitled
Estimate HK$6,000,000 - 8,000,000
Sold for HK$7,510,000
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21
This lot is no longer available.
22
Adrian Ghenie
Pie Fight Study 4
Estimate HK$3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for HK$4,032,000
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23
Michaël Borremans
Stars
Estimate HK$2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for HK$2,772,000
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24
Li Chen
Angelic Smile
Estimate HK$2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for HK$4,284,000
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25
Zhang Xiaogang
Bloodline Series - Big Family
Estimate HK$7,500,000 - 10,000,000
Sold for HK$8,115,000
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26
Zhang Enli
Things
Estimate HK$2,200,000 - 4,200,000
Sold for HK$2,520,000
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27
This lot is no longer available.
28
Lee Ufan
From Line No. 790372
Estimate HK$9,000,000 - 14,000,000
Sold for HK$11,140,000
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29
Pierre Soulages
Peinture 102 x 130 cm, 11 mars 2016
Estimate HK$7,500,000 - 10,000,000
Sold for HK$8,115,000
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30
Ouattara Watts
Intercessor
Estimate HK$800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for HK$1,134,000
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31
Sam Francis
Untitled
Estimate HK$1,500,000 - 2,500,000
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32
KAWS
UNTITLED
Estimate HK$3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold for HK$3,276,000
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33
Kohei Nawa
PixCell-Deer #21
Estimate HK$2,800,000 - 3,500,000
Sold for HK$3,780,000
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34
This lot is no longer available.
35
Anna Park
I to I
Estimate HK$300,000 - 500,000
Sold for HK$2,268,000
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36
Trey Abdella
Some Things Aren't Worth Waiting For
Estimate HK$600,000 - 900,000
Sold for HK$2,646,000
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37
Szabolcs Bozó
One Bird, A Cat and A Man
Estimate HK$400,000 - 600,000
Sold for HK$882,000
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38
Katherine Bernhardt
Laundry Day
Estimate HK$800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for HK$2,142,000
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39
Issy Wood
Dog With Pendants (Not as Close)
Estimate HK$1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for HK$1,386,000
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40
Robert Nava
Shark Wing Pegasus
Estimate HK$1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for HK$3,780,000
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41
Ayako Rokkaku
Untitled
Estimate HK$2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold for HK$8,115,000
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42
Allison Zuckerman
Bullseye
Estimate HK$550,000 - 750,000
Sold for HK$1,071,000
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43
Serge Attukwei Clottey
Valentine's Day
Estimate HK$250,000 - 450,000
Sold for HK$693,000
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44
Genieve Figgis
Pink Ballroom
Estimate HK$1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold for HK$2,016,000
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45
Emmanuel Taku
Brothers in Red
Estimate HK$300,000 - 500,000
Sold for HK$1,512,000
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46
Aboudia
Take Me II
Estimate HK$500,000 - 700,000
Sold for HK$2,520,000
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47
José Parlá
Writers' Bench: Grand Concourse & 149th Street, The Bronx
Estimate HK$800,000 - 1,200,000
Sold for HK$1,764,000
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48
Edgar Plans
Night Creatures
Estimate HK$1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Sold for HK$3,024,000
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49
Rafa Macarrón
Sin título (Cosmos)
Estimate HK$700,000 - 1,000,000
Sold for HK$1,386,000
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