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Overview
'The architecture of Trinidad and in particular the detail of the security grills became part of my painterly language and they became a symbol of how I understood what was happening there.' —Hurvin Anderson
Hurvin Anderson’s Marlene’s is a fascinating study into the painterly genre. Straddling figuration and abstraction, the composition presents six distinct pictorial planes, crosshatched and dotted with areas of colour, separated by thick white bands emulating the rhythmic formulaism of a window’s muntin bars. While a simple glance will only grant the viewer a slim idea of the scene at play, careful inspection will reveal the timid outlines of objects drenched in vibrant colour – ultimately identifying the painting’s setting as the interior of a bar. Exhibited at the Hurvin Anderson: New Paintings exhibition at Thomas Dane in 2005, Marlene’s was accompanied by a group of works on paper as well as five paintings on canvas which were broadly classified under two themes: the tradition of landscape painting and the visual element of the grid.
Though Anderson works from pre-existing photographs, the artist frequently drifts from a given image’s specific characteristics, and weaves personal impressions and recollections to compose an entirely new -- yet eerily evocative -- image. ‘[Anderson’s] source material is simply a starting point’, writes Jennifer Higgie; ‘it’s equally important for him to allow the experiences and locations referenced in his pictures to collide and interact’.i In Marlene’s, it seems that Anderson indeed utilises his subject matter as a platform from which to revisit abstract principles, as well as a symbolic ground from which to tackle political issues relating to colonialism – specifically in the Carribean, where the scene is set. Playing on Marlene’s’ different layers, both compositionally and thematically, Anderson seamlessly pairs art historical tradition with contemporary critique.'I began to use the security grill as a motif or device and eventually as a structure in the paintings. They became a useful vehicle to describe something about the place. The grills suggested a kind of “blot” on the landscape, that something wasn’t quite right.' —Hurvin AndersonForming part of a group of paintings composing the Welcome series, Marlene’s is structured around the dizzying visual component of the grid – herein embodied by a wire security grille guarding the presumably eponymous West Indian establishment. Swiftly shifting to abstraction as horizontal, diagonal and vertical lines form a monochromatic mesh, the composition veers between a simple reading of the surface and the physical possibility of depth, as if perpetually moving in and out of focus. ‘All of Hurvin’s work seems to me to incorporate an intense amount of depth’ writes Thelma Golden, director of The Studio Museum, Harlem, at the time of the artist’s show there. ‘Depth of field, depth of colour, and even depth of subject’.ii Enabling the conflation of multiple layers, enabled by a spatial interplay between the diamond-shaped lattice, the sweeping perspectival lines of the ceiling and the windows’ thick muntin bars, Anderson’s wire grille calls to mind a number of modern art historical antecedents focusing on compositional structure. The gridded pattern – a notorious minimalist tool and visual element – notably echoes Piet Mondrian’s corpus of geometric canvases interspersed with colour, specifically Trafalgar Square, 1939-43, residing at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Much like Marlene’s focuses on the formal aspect of the composition rather than attending to the precise characteristics of the represented bar, Trafalgar Square possesses an explicit titular reference that nonetheless remains invisible to the naked eye.
The Modern Grid
Varvara Fedrovna Stepanova, Lane of an Aeroplane: Illustration for Aleksei Kruchenykh's Nonsense "Gly-Gly", 1919, ink on card, Tobie Mathew Collection.
© Rodchenko & Stepanova Archive, DACS, RAO 2020. Image: Bridgeman Images.
Piet Mondrian, Trafalgar Squar, 1939-43, oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image: 2020, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence. 
Agnes Martin, Organ Note, 1962, ink on paper, Museum of Modern Art, New York. The William S. Paley Collection. © Agnes Martin / DACS 2020. Image: 2020, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence. 
Sol LeWitt, Cubic-Modular Wall Structure, Black, 1966, painted wood, Museum of Modern Art, New York. © ARS, NY and DACS, London 2020. Image: 2020, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence. 
Ellsworth Kelly, Colors for a Large Wall, 1951, oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art, New York. © Ellsworth Kelly Foundation, Courtesy of Matthew Marks. Image: 2020, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence. -
Varvara Fedrovna Stepanova, Lane of an Aeroplane: Illustration for Aleksei Kruchenykh's Nonsense "Gly-Gly", 1919, ink on card, Tobie Mathew Collection.
© Rodchenko & Stepanova Archive, DACS, RAO 2020. Image: Bridgeman Images. -
Piet Mondrian, Trafalgar Squar, 1939-43, oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image: 2020, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence.
Provenance
Thomas Dane Gallery, London
David Teiger, New Jersey
The History of Now: The Collection of David Teiger, Sotheby's, London, 5 October 2018, lot 11
Acquired at the above sale by the present ownerExhibited
London, Thomas Dane Gallery, Hurvin Anderson: New Paintings, 2 June - 9 July 2005, no. 12 (illustrated, n.p.)
Ο27
Marlene’s
signed with the artist's initials, titled and dated '''Marlene's'' April 2005 H.A' on the overlap; further titled 'Marlene's' on the stretcher
oil on canvas
88.4 x 146 cm (34 3/4 x 57 1/2 in.)
Painted in April 2005.
Estimate
£250,000 - 350,000 ‡♠
Sold for £252,000
Kate Bryan
Specialist, Head of Evening Sale
+44 20 7318 4026
kbryan@phillips.com
20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale
London Auction 20 October 2020
1
Emily Mae Smith
Alien Shores
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000 ‡
Sold for £277,200
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2
Salman Toor
Aashiana (Hearth and Home)
Estimate £30,000 - 50,000 ‡
Sold for £138,600
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3
Portia Zvavahera
Arising from the Unknown
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000 ‡
Sold for £163,800
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4
Titus Kaphar
Alternate Endings
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ‡
Sold for £466,200
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5
Hernan Bas
Two Fruits
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000
Sold for £163,800
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6
Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe
Black Stripes on White
Estimate £20,000 - 30,000 ‡
Sold for £94,500
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7
Dana Schutz
Trump Descending an Escalator
Estimate £380,000 - 580,000 ‡
Sold for £688,000
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8
Banksy
Girl with Balloon & Morons Sepia
Estimate £500,000 - 700,000 ‡♠
Sold for £1,232,500
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9
Nicolas Party
Rocks
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000
Sold for £603,300
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10
Georg Baselitz
Das letzte Selbstbildnis I
Estimate £4,700,000 - 6,000,000 ♠
Sold for £4,983,500
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11
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Back of the Neck
Estimate £450,000 - 650,000 ‡
Sold for £627,500
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12
Keith Haring
Untitled (Grace Jones Mask)
Estimate £1,500,000 - 2,000,000 ‡
Sold for £1,716,500
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13
George Condo
The Age of Reason
Estimate £2,000,000 - 3,000,000 ‡
Sold for £2,082,369
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14
Alex Katz
Ada with Mirror
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ‡
Sold for £529,200
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15
Yoshitomo Nara
Magic Carpet
Estimate £500,000 - 700,000
Sold for £504,000
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16
Ed Ruscha
1981 - Future
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000
Sold for £567,000
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17
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled (Pestus)
Estimate £2,000,000 - 3,000,000 ‡
Sold for £2,200,500
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18
Andy Warhol
Flowers
Estimate £1,400,000 - 1,800,000 ‡
Sold for £1,595,500
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19
Sir Peter Blake, R.A.
Nudina
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ♠
Sold for £75,600
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20
Allen Jones
Project for Fifteen Foot Women
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000 ♠
Sold for £189,000
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21
Sean Scully
Somebody's Angel
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £1,014,700
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22
Joan Mitchell
Untitled
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000
Sold for £441,000
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23
Cy Twombly
Portrait of Alvise di Robilant
Estimate £500,000 - 700,000 ‡
Sold for £510,300
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24
Alberto Giacometti
Femme debout
Estimate £550,000 - 750,000 ‡
Sold for £651,700
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25
Wojciech Fangor
M 91
Estimate £200,000 - 300,000 ♠
Sold for £252,000
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26
Georges Mathieu
Petite Torture infligée au Marquis de Coconat et à son complice la Môle
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ♠
Sold for £252,000
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27
Hurvin Anderson
Marlene’s
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ‡♠
Sold for £252,000
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28
This lot is no longer available.
29
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
Luminary
Estimate £250,000 - 450,000 ♠
Sold for £315,000
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30
Henry Taylor
Ari and the Deer
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ‡
Sold for £113,400
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31
Georg Baselitz
Kopf an Kopf II
Estimate £600,000 - 800,000 ‡♠
Sold for £705,000
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32
Albert Oehlen
Control
Estimate £400,000 - 600,000 ‡♠
Sold for £475,000
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33
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled
Estimate £800,000 - 1,200,000 ‡♠
Sold for £990,500
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34
Albert Oehlen
Die Veränderungen
Estimate £700,000 - 900,000 ♠
Sold for £809,000
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35
Günther Förg
Untitled
Estimate £250,000 - 350,000 ♠
Sold for £315,000
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36
Anish Kapoor
Blade
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000 ‡♠
Sold for £85,680
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37
This lot is no longer available.
38
Jason Rhoades
Heroic Vagina
Estimate £150,000 - 200,000
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39
Wolfgang Tillmans
Freischwimmer 27
Estimate £210,000 - 300,000 ♠
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40
Cory Arcangel
Photoshop CS: 110 by 72 inches, 300 DPI, RGB, square pixels, default gradient 'Spectrum', mousedown y=23900 x=11650, mouseup y=32650 x=11650
Estimate £100,000 - 150,000 ‡
Sold for £252,000
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